Madison Keys’ stunning start to 2025 has seen the American become just the fifth woman in WTA Rankings history to achieve an incredible top-10 win feat.
A defeat in Auckland was followed by a ninth career title at the Adelaide International for the 29-year-old, and she backed that up winning her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open.
Keys’ start to the season has seen her play five opponents ranked inside the top 10 – and beat all of them.
She is only the fifth player since the WTA Rankings were introduced in 1975 to win her first five matches in a season against top-10 opposition – emulating four fellow Grand Slam winners.
Tennis icon Navratilova is the only woman to achieve this feat twice, doing so in 1986 and then in 1990.
In 1986, the 18-time Grand Slam champion won her first 15 meetings against top-10 opponents and held a staggering 37-2 record by the end of the year, only losing once each to Steffi Graf and Chris Evert.
However, she also beat both Graf, Evert, and fellow major winner Hana Mandlikova during her winning run, alongside multiple wins over former Grand Slam finalists Helena Sukova and Pam Shriver.
Navratilova would then win her first five matches against top-10 opponents in 1990, remaining unbeaten until a loss to future world No 1 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in Hamburg.
She had beaten Manuela Maleeva, Monica Seles, Zina Garrison, Sukova, and Katerina Maleeva up until that point.
The first woman to ever be ranked world No 1 in the WTA Rankings in 1975, 18-time Grand Slam singles champion Evert joined Navratilova in attaining this feat in 1986.
Evert won five straight matches against top-10 ranked opponents to start her year, before a loss to chief rival Navratilova in the Dallas final.
She had previously beaten Graf twice – in the Miami and Boca Raton finals – and also secured triumphs over Manuela Maleeva, Sukova, and Garrison.
Evert would eventually hold a 17-6 record against top-10 players across the whole of 1986.
Former world No 1 and two-time major champion Mauresmo had fallen outside the top 20 of the WTA Rankings by the start of 2009, though kicked off what proved to be her final season in style.
The Frenchwoman won her first six matches against top-10 ranked opponents that year and would lose just once in eight such matches that season.
Mauresmo defeated Ana Ivanovic in Brisbane before wins over Agnieszka Radwanska, Jelena Jankovic, and Elena Dementieva on her way to winning her final career title in Paris.
She would add further victories over Dementieva and Vera Zvonareva to her record that spring before a Wimbledon loss to Dinara Safina.
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Tennis legend Williams won 12 of her 13 matches against top-10 opponents in 2014 – an impressive haul that included her first nine matches against top-10 players that season.
Williams beat Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka in back-to-back matches in Brisbane, and then beat the likes of Sharapova and Li Na to triumph in Miami.
The American beat former world No 1 Jelena Jankovic three times over the year – and also recorded two wins over future No 1 Angelique Kerber.
She had made it nine wins in a row before her second match at the WTA Finals, where her run was halted abruptly in a 6-0, 6-2 group stage loss to Simona Halep – though she still went on to win the title.
Now a Grand Slam champion, Keys has compiled a 14-1 record to start 2025 – with an unblemished 5-0 record against top-10 opponents to date.
Keys picked up her first top-10 win of the season over Daria Kasatkina in the Adelaide quarter-finals and then defeated compatriot Jessica Pegula in the final.
That was followed by a staggering run in Melbourne that saw her overcome Elena Rybakina in the round of 16, Iga Swiatek in the last four, and then world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the final.
Keys now holds an overall career record of 33-46 against top-10 opposition.
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