Australian Open

Keys to success: Fratangelo coaches wife to dream Australian Open run

Americans married in November

January 24, 2025

When Bjorn Fratangelo was injured in 2023, he began working with his then fiancée Madison Keys. What has happened ever since has been straight from a movie script.

Fratangelo and Keys tied the knot this past November. Roughly six weeks later, Keys won the WTA tournament in Adelaide, her second tournament of the 2025 season.

Now the American, No. 14 in the WTA Rankings, will compete in the Australian Open title match. It marks Keys’ second major final appearance and first since the US Open in 2017 — the same year Keys and Fratangelo began dating.

How did their relationship turn into a full-fledged on-court partnership as well?

“I think it kind of started when we kind of had a little more tennis dialogue in our relationship, sort of when I was finishing my own career,” Fratangelo said in a press conference Friday in Melbourne. Fratangelo reached a career-high No. 99 in the PIF ATP Rankings in 2016 and won four ATP Challenger Tour titles. He played his final match in August 2023.

“She was just bouncing ideas off of me and stuff. It was the first time I was giving input back.

“Then it just came to a point where we started and decided that I was going to be with her full time. It was just like, ‘How much do you want to get out of this? Are you happy with staying 11 through 25 [in the rankings]? Do you want to try to push for more? What do you want?’”

The 29-year-old Keys has enjoyed a recent resurgence, playing some of the best tennis of her life in Melbourne. She has ousted three Top 15 players, including five-time major champion Iga Swiatek in a thrilling semi-final, during which Keys saved one match point.

Australian Open semi-final victory.” style=”width:100%” src=”https://www.atptour.com/-/media/images/news/2025/01/24/18/23/keys-ao-2025-sf.jpg”>
^{Madison Keys celebrates her Australian Open semi-final victory. Credit: Martin Keep/AFP via Getty Images}

A perennial Top 25 player who is one win away from her biggest career trophy, Keys is still “nowhere near her full potential”, according to Fratangelo.

“Sharpening the axe can get you so far, but sometimes you just need new tools. I think that’s what I’ve tried to bring to the table,” Fratangelo said.

“She’s obviously done it her way for so long. It’s brought her great success and an amazing career. I just thought, ‘Okay, if we make a few changes and some subtle tweaks here and there, maybe being 15 in the world turns to 10 and 10 can turn to eight, then all of a sudden you’re in the mix, and you’re being talked about again, like she is now.’”

To win the title, Keys will need to defeat Aryna Sabalenka, who has lifted the Melbourne trophy the past two years. Sabalenka is No. 1 in the WTA Rankings.

Fratangelo recognises Sabalenka’s elite level, drawing comparisons to some of the sport’s greatest players.

“I was watching [her quarter-final] at night in the room in the hotel and there just wasn’t a doubt in my mind that she wasn’t going to win that match,” Fratangelo said of Sabalenka, who needed a decider in her quarter-final match.

“That’s kind of how you feel with Novak when he plays most matches, Serena when she played most matches, Roger, Rafa. I think she has that now.”

When Keys is met with the pressure of competing in the high-stakes match Saturday, she can simply turn to her player’s box and be reminded of her biggest supporter: her husband.

“I try to stay as calm as I can in the box, but I’m not going to sit here and lie to you and tell you that I don’t have a pulse, you know. It’s nerve-racking,” Fratangelo said.

“When you can’t do anything and you’re just sitting on the side, you feel kind of helpless. Like obviously if I’m playing in that situation, you’re kind of dictating what happens. But when I’m just sitting there watching, it’s another level of stress.”