“Madison is a great player and experienced, so you never know,” said Swiatek, who is 4-1 against the 29-year-old Keys. “I’ll be just focused on myself.”
Using a new racket this season, Keys is on a 10-match winning streak, including a title at a hard-court tuneup event in Adelaide. Her run to the semifinals in Melbourne includes victories over two past runners-up at the Australian Open, Danielle Collins and Elina Rybakina.
Keys’ past losses in the semifinals in Melbourne came against eventual champions Serena Williams in 2015 and Ash Barty in 2022.
“I think I play a little bit smarter for sure … probably a little bit less fearless,” Keys said.
Svitolina, a three-time Slam semifinalist, was in control during the first set. But Keys made some tactical adjustments, including looking for more opportunities to get to the net. She won 23 of the 26 points when she moved forward and ended up with a total of 49 winners, 23 on her powerful forehand side.
The one difficulty Keys had was getting going in her return games. But she finally converted her seventh break chance to lead 4-2 in the second set.
“Iga is tough to beat, because she has a lot of spin, kind of naturally, on both sides. She’s a good server. She’s a good returner. She moves incredibly well,” Keys said, looking ahead to Thursday. “The biggest thing that makes her so difficult to beat is, because she moves so well, if you miss your spot just slightly, she has enough time to recover, and then the point goes back to neutral.”
