Madison Keys has charged into the Australian Open final and will meet two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka in Saturday’s championship (3 a.m. ET, ESPN).

No. 19 Keys, the 29-year-old from Orlando, Fla., fended off a match point and upset No. 2 Iga Swiatek, 5-7, 6-1, 7-6(8) in 2 hours, 36 minutes to advance to her second career Grand Slam final. She lost the 2017 U.S. Open final to fellow American Sloane Stephens.

“Yeah, I’m in the finals,” Keys, the first woman to come from a set down to win an Australian Open semifinal since Venus Williams in 2017, said in her on-court interview. “That match was just such high level and she played so well and I felt like I was just fighting to stay in it. I kind of really ran with the second and then the third was just a battle.

“To be able to be standing here and be in the finals is absolutely amazing and I’m so excited that I get to be here on Saturday.”

Keys, a former world No. 7, still has not lost a match this year and will return to the top 10 on Monday. The WTA Top 10 will have four players from the USA: Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Emma Navarro and Keys.

Sabalenka won her 20th straight match in Melbourne, 6-4, 6-2, over her close friend, No. 11 Paula Badosa of Spain.

A native of Belarus, she is 4-1 against Keys. This will be their fourth hardcourt meeting and their third meeting in a major. Sabalenka beat Keys in three tough sets in the 2023 U.S. Open semifinals in their last major meeting.

“Definitely, some big hitting I think is going to happen [in the final], not a whole lot of long points,” Keys said. “She’s obviously goiug for her third Aussie Open and I’m excited to get to play her. I’m very excited for the challenge and Saturday is very far away in my brain right now.”

Keys was playing in her third Australian Open semifinal after losing the previous two to world No. 1s — Serena Williams in 2015 and Ash Barty in 2022 — both times as an unseeded player.

With Swiatek serving at 3-4 in the final set, Keys had two break points to take a 5-3 lead and serve for the match but couldn’t convert. Swiatek held for 4-all.

With Keys serving at 5-all, Swiatek hit a running forehand winner off a drop shot at 30-40 to take a 6-5 lead.

At 6-5, Keys hit a backhand into the net at 30-all to bring Swiatek to match point. But Keys won the point and Swiatek then double-faulted to make it 6-all.

In the 10-point match tiebreak, Keys served up an ace and then a service winner to get to match point at 9-8.

“At the end, I feel like we were both kind of batting some nerves and just pushing each other, and it just became who can get that final point and who can kind of just be a little bit better than the other one, and I’m happy it was me,” Keys said.

On match point, Swiatek sailed a forehand long and Keys clenched both fists and let out a huge smile.

“Best tennis I’ve ever seen Madison Keys play, so very happy for her,” ESPN’s Mary Joe Fernandez said on air. “She burst through here 10 years ago as a 19-year-old and you see the emotions and the tears…She deserved this one.”

Sabalenka, 26, became the first woman to make three consecutive Australian Open finals since Serena Williams and the youngest since Martina Hingis.

Sabalenka improved her record to 6-2 over Badosa. The Spaniard is set to return to the WTA Rankings Top 10 after making her first Grand Slam semifinal. On her way to the final four, Badosa secured her first Top 10 win at a major by defeating No. 3 Gauff in the quarterfinals.

Badosa opened the match in near-perfect form, with play initially starting under a partially opened roof at Rod Laver Arena before it was fully closed due to rain. Badosa held a 2-0, 40-0 lead but could not convert her triple-game point. Sabalenka steadied herself to break Badosa in an eight-minute game to put the match back on serve, and the World No.1 ran off four consecutive games.

“After Love-2, love-40, after that I’d rate that I played really great tennis,” Sabalenka said. “I mean, I played an incredible match, I think.

“I think when I broke her twice and I was 3-2 up, I felt like, Okay, I’m back. I felt my game much better. I was like, Okay, now it’s time to step in.”

After building a comfortable 4-2 lead, Sabalenka never looked back. She did not face another break point in the 1-hour, 26-minute match.

(The WTA contributed reporting)