MELBOURNE -- World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka's quest for an Australian Open three-peat will have to go through No.14 Madison Keys. Both players are riding 11-match win streaks and are set to meet in the Australian Open final on Saturday.

Here's what you need to know about the first Grand Slam final of the 2025 Hologic WTA Tour season:

When is the women's singles final?

The women's singles final will take place on Rod Laver Arena on Saturday, Jan. 25 at 7:30 p.m. local time (3:30 a.m. ET).

What are the points and prize money at stake?

The Australian Open is the first Grand Slam of the season. By making the final, Sabalenka and Keys have assured themselves 1,300 points and $1,900,000.

The winner will earn 2,000 points and $3,500,000.

Australian Open: Scores | Schedule | Draws

By making the final, Sabalenka will leave Melbourne Park with her No.1 ranking intact.

Keys has assured her return to the Top 10 on the PIF WTA Rankings for the first time since 2019. Victory on Saturday would see her eclipse her career-high ranking of No.7, which she achieved in 2016.

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How did Sabalenka and Keys get here?

Sabalenka and Keys came into the Australian Open as two of the hottest players through the first two weeks of the season. Both won Hologic WTA Tour tournaments before coming to Melbourne, with Sabalenka opening her season with the title at the Brisbane International in Week 1. Keys followed suit in Week 2, beating Jessica Pegula to win the Adelaide International. Now they both head into Saturday's final riding double-digit win streaks. Sabalenka is a perfect 11-0 on the year. Keys has won her past 11 matches as well, setting a new mark for the longest win streak of her career.

Playing as the No.1 seed at a Slam for the first time in her career, Sabalenka has lost just one set across her six matches. That set came on a windy night in the quarterfinals against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, which she turned around to post a 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 win. Aside from that blip, Sabalenka has run through wins over Sloane Stephens, Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, Clara Tauson, Mirra Andreeva and, in her most impressive performance of the tournament, a 6-4, 6-2 win over Paula Badosa in the semifinals.

Dating back to her first Australian Open title in 2023, Sabalenka has now made the final of the last five hard-court Grand Slams. She is the fifth player in the Open Era to do so, along with Martina Navratilova, Stefaine Graf, Monica Seles and Martina Hingis.

Keys has needed four three-set efforts to advance to her second career Grand Slam semifinal, including a match-point saving effort to topple No.2 Iga Swiatek in the semifinals. Over 2 hours and 35 minutes, Keys blasted her forehand to keep Swiatek at bay before winning 4-6, 6-1, 7-6[8].

The gritty win was her third over a Top 10 seed in Melbourne. She also bested No.10 Danielle Collins and No.6 Elena Rybakina. Adding to the grueling nature of her draw, Keys needed nearly two hours to hold off Elina Svitolina in the quarterfinals, winning 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. 

Read: How a racquet change and fresh outlook boosted Madison Keys to new heights in 2025

What milestones are at stake on Saturday? 

Sabalenka is bidding for a historic three-peat at the Australian Open. The last woman to sweep the Australian Open in three consecutive years was Hingis from 1997 to 1999. The title would be her fourth Grand Slam title and 19th Hologic WTA Tour title of her career.  

Sabalenka could become the first woman to win three consecutive hard-court Grand Slam titles this century. The last woman to accomplish this feat was Hingis, who won the 1997 Australian Open, 1997 US Open and 1998 Australian Open. Only three women in the Open Era have won three consecutive hard-court majors. Sabalenka could become the fourth, joining Graf, Seles and Hingis.

Keys is trying to become the first first-time Grand Slam singles winner since Coco Gauff at the 2023 US Open. It would be her second title of the season and 10th overall. Keys made her first Grand Slam final at the 2017 US Open, where she lost to Sloane Stephens. By repeating the feat in Melbourne, she became the player with the most Grand Slam appearances between her first and second major finals (25), besting the previous mark of 24 set by Marion Bartoli and Amelie Mauresmo. 

Having already defeated No.2 Swiatek, Keys is trying to become the first player to beat the World No.1 and No.2 in a Grand Slam event since Svetlana Kuznetsova at 2009 Roland Garros and the first at the Australian Open since Serena Williams in 2005.

How do they stack up?

Head to Head

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BLR
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80% Win 4
- Matches Played

20% Win 1

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USA

Sabalenka has won four of their previous five meetings, with Keys' sole win coming in three sets on the grass in Berlin in 2021. But their most pivotal match, the one both are quick to reference, was the dramatic 2023 US Open semifinal. There, Keys led 6-0, 5-3 before Sabalenka turned the match around to win 0-6, 7-6(1), 7-6[10-5]. When a reporter asked Sabalenka if Keys was the only player who left her feeling overpowered, she thought about it and laughed.

"Yeah," Sabalenka said. "I mean, yeah."

The win put Sabalenka into her first US Open final and left Keys heartbroken over the opportunity lost. 

"I think 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," Keys said. "That felt so bad. I just felt like 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, 'OK, I did my best, she beat me, that's fine.'

"I didn't want to be in the same situation where I kind of looked back at it and thought, Man, I should have gone for it. I didn't want to have any regrets for not really laying it all out there."

What are they saying? 

Sabalenka: "Last year I thought, 'OK, I feel like home, I feel so good here, I feel all the support.' This year I feel even more. I feel like I'm coming home to my home Slam. I know everything. I know every area. I know where to warm up so it's not that crowded. I go there, and I feel like people screaming my name, they support me. I have goosebumps every time they scream, 'Let's go Aryna.' It's incredible to feel that support here."

Keys: "I think what's really impressive is her mentality. I think her ability to kind of always go for it, no matter what the score is, is really impressive. She plays such fearless tennis. She has the ability to play so well that way. I think it's very unique. I think a lot of people, no matter what, even if it was a tight point, you kind of expect them to play a little bit more conservative or back down a little bit, and you know she's not going to do that."

Sabalenka: "I was under so much pressure [against Keys in the 2023 US Open semifinals]. It felt like she was just going for her shots, and everything was going in. She was just crushing it. I think at some moments she started questioning herself. I saw that and I felt like, 'OK, now is the moment to make sure that you put as many balls back as you can. I think that was the crucial moment. I just turned around things. But yeah, she played incredible, aggressive tennis in that semis."

Keys: "I think that I've done a lot of work trying to not get rid of nerves because I think 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. I think 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, I think is something that I've been working really hard on."