As Iga Świątek prepared to serve at 6-5 and 40-30 in the third set against Madison Keys, it seemed everyone inside Rod Laver Arena was aware the Pole had a match point.

Everyone that is except her opponent across the net.

“I had no idea what the score was,” Keys told reporters as she reflected on her stunning Australian Open semifinal win over Świątek.

It wasn’t that Keys was confused, or she couldn’t read the scoreboard.

Rather, it was an indication of the American 19th seed’s intense concentration that ultimately wore down Świątek and booked a place in the final against two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka.

“I kind of kept telling myself, ‘Just try to get the next point,” Keys said.

“Especially at the end of the match, I really was just so focused on what I wanted to try to do.

“I think it helped me because I was just able to kind of solely focus on that.

“Really I just kept saying, ‘Only focus on this point. Win it or lose it, move on to the next point’.

“[I] just kept trying to stay as close as I could.”

Keys’s approach helped save the match point before she forced a 10-point tiebreak when five-time major champion Świątek lost her service game.

Leading 8-7 in the tiebreak, second seed Świątek was only two points away from victory and her first appearance in an Australian Open final.

But just beyond midnight, Keys claimed the next three points to snatch a 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (10/8) win after an exhausting two hours and 35 minutes on court.

Keys recovers from ‘heartbreaking’ loss

Keys doesn’t have pleasant memories from her most recent meeting with Sabalenka at a major.

In the 2023 US Open semifinals, she was dominating when she served for the match in the second set.

But a service break allowed Sabalenka back into the contest and the Belarusian went on to complete a 0-6, 7-6 (7/1), 7-6 (7/5) triumph.

Keys admits it took some time to recover from the devastation.

“I would be lying if I said that there wasn’t doubts [after her loss], I think that felt like such a huge moment,” said Keys, who had previously reached the 2017 US Open final.

“I felt like I was so close. To be that close and to lose it was just so heartbreaking.

“I felt like I’d really left it all out there. That’s really all you can ask. But at the end of the day, it’s still such a tough one to have to go home on.

“So that one took a little while to kind of heal from and get past.”

As Keys went through the healing process, she also realised she wanted to play with greater freedom and not be afraid of being “uncomfortable” on court.

The 29-year-old credited this attitude readjustment for inspiring her defeat of Świątek on Thursday night.

“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 be uncomfortable at times and just actually go for it … 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.

“So … my whole goal today [against Świątek] was that no matter what — win or lose — I walked away and said that I did what I wanted to do, I followed the game plan, I went for things when I should have gone for things.”

Keys and world number one Sabalenka face off in the final on Saturday night.

Sabalenka advanced to her third straight Melbourne Park decider following a clinical 6-4, 6-2 win over Spanish 11th seed Paula Badosa.