How China’s Li Na predicted Madison Keys’ Australian Open win 10 years ago
‘To live up to her expectations … is simply amazing,’ says the American, whose triumph reveals a number of parallels between her and Li
Madison Keys’ Australian Open triumph fulfilled a prediction made a decade ago by Li Na – and she even managed it on a special anniversary for the Chinese tennis legend.
American Keys’ victory in Melbourne came on January 25, the same date Li won her Australian Open crown 11 years earlier.
And Li had seen it coming, tipping Keys to follow her to the pinnacle when she said at the same tournament in 2015 that she saw Keys as “a future grand slam champion” whose “future is limitless”.
Keys reached a semi-final in Melbourne – her first at any grand slam tournament – the same year Li picked her out, and was among the final four again in 2022 before going all the way three years on.
“I loved watching Li Na play; it was incredible to be able to play against her, too,” Keys said after her success at Melbourne Park. “To be able to live up to her expectations and hold the same grand slam trophy is simply amazing.”
The parallels and connections did not end there. Li, whose Australian Open win was her second major title, had waited until she was 29 to claim her first – the same age Keys was when she lifted her maiden slam trophy on Saturday.
Both Keys and Li had to beat four top-10 seeds en route to their first such title, and each was coached by their partner, in Bjorn Fratangelo and Jiang Shan respectively.
