Andy Roddick shares heartfelt feelings about Madison Keys knocking out Iga Swiatek to reach Australian Open final

Madison Keys played some scintillating tennis to outclass Iga Swiatek in the semifinals of the Australian Open and fellow American star Andy Roddick has hailed her for sticking to her game plan to claim a monumental victory. Keys didn’t get off to a great start as she lost the opening set 5-7 but came out all guns blazing in the second set to win it 6-1.

This served as a massive morale boost for the American as this was the first time Swiatek conceded a set at the 2025 Australian Open.

The final set went the distance and Keys won the deciding tie-breaker 10-8 to reach her first final at the Melbourne Major. Roddick applauded Keys for reading the game, sticking to her game plan, and playing to her strengths, in one of the biggest matches of her career. He said on his podcast Served With Andy Roddick:

“You knew she was going to be emotional when she closed it out and she stepped up. She was down 5-7 in the breaker and just stuck to her game plan. She knew there was no winning with just putting the balls in the court. She had to fire when she had two feet underneath her.

It was a clear game plan. Game plans are easy, ideas are easy, the execution is hard. Otherwise, every person would be a professional tennis player.”

Madison Keys has reached her career’s second Grand Slam final, having earlier lost in the US Open 2017 final.

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Andy Roddick hails Madison Keys’ gritty performance

Madison Keys had to dig deep for a remarkable comeback win against Iga Swiatek. The odds were firmly stacked against Keys as the Pole had beaten her in four of their five matches and had not dropped a single set en route to the semifinals, but Keys put all that aside to upset the second seed.

Madison Keys celebrates after defeating Iga Swiatek at the 2025 Australian Open. Source: Getty

Talking about Keys’ gritty performance and her self-pep-talks during crucial moments, Andy Roddick said on his podcast:

“She's easy to be around. She's not self-important. If anything, she rips on herself probably too much. But to see her kind of step up in that moment, the moments where you're seeing someone have an active therapy session with themselves in the middle of a moment because they're trying to overcome some sort of moment where they might've faltered before.

You saw Madison having a running dialogue with herself. On one point I'm appreciating the greatness of Iga, and on the other point, it's like, who doesn't want to see someone overcome something that they've been fighting for that long?”

Keys heads into the Australian Open final on an 11-match winning streak and will hope to extend that to 12 when she faces top seed Arynka Sabalenka for the title.