India, Jan. 25 -- It wasn't Aryna Sabalenka's day as she failed to match Martina Hingis' record of three consecutive Australian Open titles. The World No. 1 crumbled to a 3-6, 6-2, 5-7 defeat against Madison Keys, who claimed her maiden Grand Slam title. Prior to the final, Sabalenka had dropped only one set during her campaign. But the summit clash began with plenty of errors from the Belarusian and her service game was below-par.

She did manage to stage a comeback in the second set, but the errors came back in the decider as she crashed to a defeat, and broke down. While Keys was celebrating, Sabalenka smashed her racquet and then also covered her face with her towel, while sobbing on her chair. Then she simply got up, picked her bag, ...