She did it

I am so happy at this moment. Madison Keys of the United States has defeated Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, the no. 1 player in the world, to win the Australian Open women's singles tennis tournament. It took three sets, the last of which was decided by the score of 7 to 5.

This was the 46th time Keys had appeared in a major tournament, and the second time she had played in a championship round of a major. She was seeded no. 19 this time around. To get her name on the trophy, she beat, among others, Rybakina, Svitolina, Swiatek, and Sabalenka. All of Eastern Europe. Kinda makes you want to start shouting "USA! USA!"

Sabalenka didn't deserve to win. She came in half asleep, trailing 5 to 1 in the first set. Then she flipped the switch, dominated the second set, and played with intensity, albeit through her usual pill face and histrionics, in the deciding set. She ended the match by smashing her racquet to pieces on the court.

As happy as I am to see Keys finally win a big one, I'm ashamed to say I wasn't displeased to see the Belarusian lose. It was that way when Coco Gauff beat her in the U.S. Open, and it's that way now. I watched today's match with the sound off rather than listen to Sabalenka screaming like she's being stabbed on every shot. I'll leave it at that.

Keys worked so hard. Now at age 29 she's finally got a Grand Slam. It's how it's supposed to be. Sports are like that sometimes.

On the men's side, it's down to the final two: Sascha Zverev of Germany against Jannik Sinner of Italy in the finals tonight. Zverev's last opponent, all-time legend Novak Djokovic of Serbia, had apparently torn a thigh muscle in his previous match, a hard-fought win against Carlos Alcaraz of Spain. After dropping a first-set tiebreaker to Zverev, Djokovic called it a day rather than hurt himself further in a certain defeat. Sinner manhandled American Ben Shelton to set up the final showdown.

But that's tomorrow, and this is today. Maddie Keys won the Australian Open. Yay!