Continuing her hot start to the season, No.19 seed Madison Keys of the United States moved into the Australian Open quarterfinals for the fourth time in her career by grinding out a 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 victory over No.6 seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan.
Keys shook off a second-set lull to topple 2023 Australian Open finalist Rybakina in 1 hour and 49 minutes, moving ahead 3-2 in their head-to-head. Keys is now a win away from reaching her third Australian Open semifinal, having made the final four here in 2015 and 2022.
“Obviously pretty good first set, and I think I finished the third set really well,” Keys said in press. “There are some things that I can take and learn from the middle of the match, but overall, really happy with how I was able to finish and close out that match.”
Keys will next take on No.28 seed Elina Svitolina in a quarterfinal showdown. Svitolina came back from a double-break down in the first set to roll past Veronika Kudermetova 6-4, 6-1 in Rod Laver Arena on Monday.
Keys has a narrow 3-2 head-to-head lead over Svitolina. Their most recent meeting came almost exactly three years ago, also in Australia: Keys beat Svitolina in the first round of the WTA 250 event at Adelaide in 2022, then went all the way to the title.