Keys enters Saturday night's final as a huge underdog as Belarusian powerhouse Aryna Sabalenka bids to become the first woman this century to complete an Open title hat-trick.
No player has had their name etched on the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup for three straight years since the great Martina Hingis in 1999.
The only others to have achieved the feat in Melbourne are Margaret Court, Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and Monica Seles.
World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka is chasing a rare Australian Open title hat-trick. (Joel Carrett/AAP PHOTOS)
"That's crazy," Sabalenka said.
"That's crazy that I was able to put myself in the situation where I have chance to put my name next to the legends.
"I mean, I couldn't even dream about that. It's going to mean a lot for me."
Keys, though, is also dreaming big and hoping to pen a small piece of tennis history in her own storied career.
The 29-year-old former teenage prodigy can become the oldest first-time grand slam champion in a decade after extending her glorious unbeaten summer run to 11 matches with a stirring semi-final upset win over world No.2 Iga Swiatek.
Keys has lost her past four matches against Sabalenka, and hasn't beaten the Open's top seed since 2018, but will use her devastating US Open semi-final defeat two years ago as the driver for revenge on Rod Laver Arena.
The American won the opening set of that match 6-0 before retreating from her attacking game and losing 7-5 in a third-set tiebreaker.
After losing the 2023 US Open SF to Sabalenka, Madison Keys burst into tears— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) January 23, 2025You could hear the heartbreak in her voiceAfter beating Swiatek today, she'll have another chance to win her 1st Slam, against none other than ArynaRewriting her story 🥹pic.twitter.com/qsfN1u2OMz
Keys is vowing to lay it all on the line this time around and walk off court with no regrets.
"One of the big things after I lost to Aryna at the US Open, I felt like I tried to play safe, and I wasn't playing how I wanted to in the big moments. That felt so bad," Keys said.
"If I can go out and do what I want to do and really just, again, be uncomfortable at times and just actually go for it and continue to play the way I play my best tennis, and I lose, then I can walk away and say, 'Okay, I did my best, she beat me, that's fine'."
Sabalenka recalls that semi-final vividly, admitting no opponent had ever dominated her like Keys did before losing her nerve.
"I was under so much pressure. It felt like she was just going for her shots, and everything was going in. She was just crushing it," said the world No.1.
"I think at some moments she just started questioning herself. I saw that and I felt like, 'Okay, now is the moment to make sure that you put as many balls back as you can'.
"That was the crucial moment. I just turned things round.
"But, yeah, she played incredible, aggressive tennis in that semi."
A haunting loss to fellow American Sloane Stephens in her only previous grand slam final, at Flushing Meadows in 2017, is also driving Keys.
Madison Keys (L) says she learnt a loss from her 2017 US Open final defeat to Sloane Stephens. (AP PHOTO)
"I've obviously thought of that match endlessly for the past eight years," she said.
"During that match, I was so consumed with being nervous and the moment and the opportunity and all of that, I never really gave myself a chance to actually play.
"I've done a lot of work trying to not get rid of nerves because in the past in my head, it was kind of always the people who play amazing in the tight moments they either don't have nerves or they figure out how to get rid of them, instead of being able to play tennis with them.
"The big thing for me has just been knowing that there are going to be a lot of moments where I'm uncomfortable in the match.
"It's going to be stressful. You have thousands of people watching you. You might not be playing your best tennis.
"But instead of trying to shy away from that and search for settling or comfort or anything, just being okay that that's the situation and you can also play tennis through that is something that I've been working really hard on.
"That's probably one of the biggest lessons that I can take from that US Open final."
28°C