In Melbourne at night, thousands of lights flickered, and on the night of the women's singles final, Case, who won the Daphne Cup, was undoubtedly the most dazzling pearl. The American made another tennis sensational story with a 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 victory over world number one and two-time champion Sabalenka 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 after a two-hour battle.

In 2009, at the age of 14, Keys made her WTA Tour debut, and four years later in Madrid, the American defeated Li Na as a lucky loser to win her first career Top 10 victory. Since her debut, Keys has been dubbed the "successor to Serena Williams" for her extraordinary talent and physical fitness, and she lived up to expectations by reaching the semifinals of a Grand Slam for the first time at the 2015 Australian Open, and two years later at the US Open, Keys reached the first Grand Slam title match, but missed out on the title in the final by compatriot Stephens.

Coming to Melbourne Park this year, Keys returned to the Grand Slam final stage after eight years. Case, the tournament's No.19 seed, defeated compatriot Ann Lee and qualifier Ruse in the first two rounds, and then went on to face off in a series of tough battles, beating No.10 seed Collins, No.6 seed Rybakina, No.28 seed Svitolina and then saving match points in the semi-finals to win the tournament with a narrow victory over top seed Sabalenka in the final to claim the highly-priced Grand Slam title.

Case's world ranking returned to the top 10 this week, tying his personal high of No.7 set in 2016. In addition, Keys became the oldest female player to defeat the top 2 in the semi-finals and finals of a Grand Slam since the introduction of the ranking system in the WTA, and is also the second oldest Australian Open women's singles champion after Li Na in the Open era. The "talented girl", who had high hopes for her, finally tasted the title at the age of nearly 30 in her 46th Grand Slam main draw trip.

No longer being lost in the expectations of others and accepting the imperfections of life not only allowed Keith to find her true self, but also allowed her to find the "key" to the championship. Speaking at the post-match press conference, the American said: "From a very young age, I had the feeling that if I could never win a Grand Slam title, then I would have failed to live up to everyone's expectations. It was a heavy burden and I had to overcome a lot of things because I put a lot of pressure on myself. ”

"I ended up at a stage where I realized that I had to be proud of myself and my career whether I had a Grand Slam title or not, and I didn't need a Grand Slam title to prove how successful my career was or that I deserved to be called a good tennis player. I finally let go of my baggage, and it allowed me to really let go and play great tennis and win a Grand Slam title. If I hadn't thought so, I wouldn't be sitting here. ”

In November last year, Keith and her long-time boyfriend Fratangelo were successfully married, and two months later, they hugged and cried on the stage of the Grand Slam final. It is worth mentioning that Fratangelo is a former ATP professional tennis player who said goodbye to tennis in 2023 due to injury and has since accompanied Keys as a coach. It was at Fratangelo's suggestion that Keys switched rackets and optimised her serve at the end of last year, and the racket she chose was none other than YONEX's EZONE series, which helped her get the most out of her "offensive tennis" and show her strength.

For Case, the winning moment of the Grand Slam is undoubtedly sweet, but she believes that there is more to it than that, and that she will be able to move towards a better version of herself and further ahead in the future: "I don't think I'm at the top yet, that's the trend in tennis right now, my 30s are no longer the end of my career, and I can't wait to see where my limits are." ”

(Text/Faye Wong, Photo/Visual China)