MELBOURNE, Australia — Aryna Sabalenka threw her racket on the sideline. She sat on her bench with a towel over her head. She then even briefly walked off the court before the trophy ceremony when her bid for a third consecutive Australian Open championship ended with a 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 loss to Madison Keys in the final Saturday.

“There definitely was a bit of frustration, because I was so close to achieve something crazy. When you’re out there, you’re fighting, but it seems like everything (is not) going the way you really want (it) to go,” the No. 1-ranked Sabalenka said.

“I just needed to throw those negative emotions at the end, just so I could give a speech (and) not stand there being disrespectful,” Sabalenka added. “I was just trying to let it go and be a good person.”

She had won 20 matches in a row at Melbourne Park, and one more victory on Saturday would have allowed Sabalenka to become the first woman since Martina Hingis from 1997-99 to complete a threepeat in Australia.

“It’s OK. I mean, I’m the one who knows that after tough losses, there is good wins,” Sabalenka said. “So, I’ll keep working and make sure that next time, if I’ll be in this situation, I’ll play definitely better.”

This one was certainly close.

Keys won merely one more point than Sabalenka did in the match, 92-91. They had the same number of winners, 29 apiece. There was not a break point in the third set until the very last game.

The first person Keys sent a message to after winning her first Grand Slam title was her mother.

“Because,” a smiling Keys said, “of course you have to text Mom first.”

One of the others the 29-year-old American quickly reached out to was her therapist. Keys credits their conversations over the past 1½ years with helping her in life, generally — understanding herself, discovering what truly matters — but also on a tennis court, whether it comes to accepting that nerves will arrive during a match or deciding she would be OK with never winning a major trophy.

Keys said during an interview with The Associated Press on Saturday that she and her therapist “talked a lot” during this trip overseas, including after a narrow victory over qualifier Elena-Gabriela Ruse in the second round last week.

“I called her and said that I was kind of just dealing with some things. And we were able to talk,” Keys said. “And then we kind of just continued to text since then.”

Sabalenka entered the match with an 11-0 record in 2025. She also had been 4-1 head-to-head against Keys, a 29-year-old American who was seeded 19th in the tournament, including a win for Sabalenka in the semifinals of the U.S. Open two years ago.

“Aryna, unbelievable playing. I’m glad I finally got you back,” Keys said. “You’re always so tough to play. We always have the craziest matches. So, congratulations to you and your team for another amazing Grand Slam run.”

Sabalenka, who was the runner-up in New York to Coco Gauff in 2023 and won that event last September, could not quite leave Australia with what would have been her fourth major trophy overall.

Men’s final set

Defending champion and No. 1 seed Jannik Sinner will face No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev in the men’s final on Sunday. Sinner, 23, is seeking his third Grand Slam title overall. Zverev, 27, is trying to win his first after finishing as the runner-up in two previous major finals.

It is the first time the men seeded 1-2 will meet each other in the final at Melbourne Park since No. 1 Novak Djokovic beat No. 2 Rafael Nadal in 2019. Zverev advanced when Djokovic quit because of an injury after one set of their semifinal on Saturday.

Djokovic has posted a scan of his injured left hamstring on social media more than 24 hours after being booed off the court. The 24-time Grand Slam champion put the picture of the MRI taken Saturday on X and wrote.

“Thought I’d leave this here for all the sports injury ‘experts’ out there,” he wrote. He did not offer any additional information, such as the exact diagnosis he might have received or any timeline for his recovery.