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Having dropped only seven games in her past four matches, Swiatek shapes as a formidable challenge for Madison Keys in her third AO semi.

Facing Swiatek, though, could not be any onerous a task than taking on Ash Barty in the 2022 semi-finals after which Keys declared Australia’s top-seeded eventual champion had been almost unplayable in a 6-1 6-3 defeat.

Keys is at least happy to be playing the four-time French Open winner on a hard court this time around, having endured three of her four defeats previously against the Pole on clay.

The former US Open finalist’s only victory over Swiatek came in Cincinnati in 2022.

“I grew up playing in Cincy. They play pretty fast,” Keys said.

“It was just kind of one of those days where the ball felt lively, and I was able to kind of get ahead a little bit earlier in the point consistently and just was able to kind of run with that pressure.

“I feel like every other time I’ve played her it’s been on the slowest court ever and she’s just gotten every single ball back over.”

Keys knows she will need to be at her best to have any chance of springing an upset on Rod Laver Arena.

“Iga is tough to beat because she has a lot of spin kind of naturally on both sides. She’s a good server. She’s a good returner. She moves incredibly well,” the 29-year-old said.

“The biggest thing that makes her so difficult to beat is because since she moves so well, if you miss your spot just slightly, she has enough time to recover, and then the point goes back to neutral.

“So it’s really hard to ever really get ahead in a point.

“For most of us out here, you are not really going to try to out-defend Iga, so then there’s just such a balance of being aggressive and trying to get her to move and going for things but not pressing too hard and not going for anything too quickly.”

AAP