In 16 seasons as a professional, Madison Keys had carved out a successful career in tennis. She won nearly 300 matches, almost $20 million in prize money and settled into a comfortable spot as a Top 20 player.

The only thing missing over the years was a Grand Slam title, something her exceptional gifts once suggested was not only possible -- but probable. That began, Keys said, when she was 11.

Early last year, as her relationship with Bjorn Fratangelo deepened, they began to seriously discuss her future. Fratangelo -- destined to become her husband and coach -- wondered this aloud:

When is good enough not good enough?

“It was just kind of like how much do you want to get out of this?” Fratangelo told reporters ahead of the Australian Open final. “Are you happy with staying 11 through 25? Do you want to try to push for more? What do you want?”

Keys, who turns 30 next month, decided she wanted more. 

And so, the two set about making some dramatic technical changes -- her racquet, strings and serving motion. The biggest modification, though, was internal. In the past, wanting it so badly, she had shrunk in the critical-mass moments. Now Keys, cutting through all that scar tissue, said she was “just going to go for it and see what happens.”

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Keys, playing freely even as the match tightened on Saturday in Melbourne, happened in a big way. She did not step back against World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka, winning 6-3, 2-6, 7-5. More than seven years after reaching her first Grand Slam singles final, playing in her second, Keys won her first major championship.

That ended Sabalenka’s 20-match win streak at the Australian Open and her hopes of winning a third consecutive title.

Afterward, Keys looked down at the gleaming silver trophy in her arms and eloquently noted that it had finally come to her because she “no longer needed it.” 

Following her semifinal win over Iga Swiatek, Keys explained: “I’m getting to the point where I’m starting to appreciate my career for what it has been, and it doesn’t have to have a Grand Slam in order for me to look at it and say, I’ve done a really good job.”

There was a moment in the pivotal third set when Keys offered a glimpse into her new mindset. Serving at 2-all, she was moving forward when Sabalenka threw up a lob. Keys pivoted and pulled off an exquisite backhand overhead -- the most difficult shot in tennis -- that passed through the court at a ludicrously sharp angle.

Keys, despite the tension of the moment, couldn’t contain her laughter. She was similarly loose in a fraught semifinal match against Iga Swiatek, saving a match point and playing with conviction. 

As Sabalenka put it later, “She just stepped in and played, like, nothing to lose at the end and was just going for her shots.”

In the wake of her victory, there was a barrage of numbers that underlined how unlikely this result was for Keys:

  • The oldest player to defeat the World No.1 and No.2 in the semifinals and final at a Grand Slam event since the WTA rankings were published in 1975 -- and the first to do it in 16 years.
  • The lowest-seeded player (No.19) to win the Australian Open in the Open Era.
  • Won her first major title in her 46th opportunity -- only Flavia Pennetta (49), Goran Ivanisevic (48) and Marion Bartoli (47) waited longer in the Open Era, men and women combined.

Meeting with the media afterward, Keys talked admirably and honestly about her journey.

“I felt like from a pretty young age, I felt like if I never won a Grand Slam, then I wouldn’t have lived up to what people thought I should have been,” Keys said. “That was a pretty heavy burden to kind of carry around. 

“I think it just kind of forced me to look at myself in the mirror a little bit and try to work on, kind of just internal pressure that I was putting on myself.”

Keys credited therapy -- lots of it -- with changing her outlook.

“To really start kind of digging in on how I felt about myself and really being honest with myself about it, it was really hard,” she said. “So just being really honest and actually getting help and actually talking to someone, and not just about tennis but about how I felt about myself.

“I honestly think that had I not done that, then I wouldn’t be sitting here.”

Keys has opened the season by winning 14 matches (best among Hologic WTA players) and losing only one. She has crafted a 12-match winning streak, appropriately the longest of her career. In that three-week stretch, she’s beaten five Top 10 players -- Sabalenka, Swiatek, Elena Rybakina, Jessica Pegula and Daria Kasatkina.

On Monday, she’ll rise to No.7 in the PIF WTA Rankings -- matching her career best, achieved more than eight years ago, in the fall of 2016.

Three days after Christmas, none of it seemed a likely scenario. After making the journey to Auckland, New Zealand from her home in Orlando, Florida, a jet-lagged Keys was still a little discombobulated.

“I have no idea what planet I’m on,” she said in an interview with wtatennis.com.

Keys went on to discuss her recent marriage and all the changes to her game. The recent success of so many women later in their careers, she said, was a cause for optimism.

Was it possible her best tennis could still be ahead?

“I do really think so,” Keys said. “It’s how things are starting to trend a little bit. I think the 30-and-beyond is no longer the end of a career.

“I can’t wait to see where I’m at.” Now she knows.