Madison Keys saved a match point and came back to upset No. 2 Iga Swiatek 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (8) in a high-intensity, high-quality Australian Open semifinal Thursday to reach a Grand Slam title match for the second time in her career.

Keys, 29, was the runner-up to Sloane Stephens at the 2017 US Open. She claimed more games against Swiatek than the five-time major champion had dropped in her five previous matches at Melbourne Park combined over the past two weeks.

But Keys was on the brink of defeat when Swiatek served for the match at 6-5 in the third set and was a point away from ending it at 40-30. Swiatek put a backhand into the net and eventually got broken by double-faulting, sending the match to a concluding first-to-10, win-by-two tiebreaker.

The 19th-seeded American will face No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the final on Saturday. Sabalenka beat good friend Paula Badosa 6-4, 6-2 in the semifinals.

Sabalenka, a 26-year-old from Belarus, won the Australian Open the past two years and can become the first woman since 1999 to complete a three-peat. She is also assured to leave Melbourne still holding the No. 1 ranking.

“If she plays like this,” Badosa said about Sabalenka, “I mean, we can already give her the trophy.”

The last woman to reach three finals in a row at the year’s first Grand Slam tournament was Serena Williams, who won two from 2015 to 2017. Martina Hingis was the most recent woman with a three-peat, doing it from 1997 to 1999.

Keys’ victory made her the first woman to come from a set down to win an Australian Open semifinal since Venus Williams in 2017; Williams defeated CoCo Vandeweghe before losing to her sister Serena in the final.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.