Australian Open 2025: Sabalenka rues tactical errors in Melbourne final

American 19th seed Keys defeats Sabalenka in Australian Open final with stunning ball-striking, leaving Belarusian helpless.

Aryna Sabalenka said trying to out-muscle a similarly powerful Madison Keys in the Australian Open final was the wrong approach and she should have been more tactical after her bid to claim a third straight title at the Grand Slam ended in failure.

American 19th seed Keys produced some stunning ball-striking in the title clash at Rod Laver Arena to beat the Belarusian 6-3 2-6 7-5 after a two-hour battle on Saturday.

"I would have tried not to out-hit her but to play more tactically and probably the most important thing, but to boldly go after the ball," Sabalenka told Reuters in Russian.

"Now it's tough to say what the most important lesson is, because the match was so complete. It may be to adapt during the warm-up, so that you go out on court as charged as possible, so that you can move around from the very beginning.

"It's obvious that there were decisive moments at the start, I just let her warm up and then I heroically tried to get out of the situation and return to a more equal situation."

Both players hit 29 winners but the quality and timing of the shots Keys produced left Sabalenka helpless at times.

"I mean, if she can play consistently like that, there's it's not much you can do. I mean, of course, I know how to play against her, but in this match I couldn't really do my stuff," Sabalenka told reporters.