Madison Keys qualifies for WTA Finals in Riyadh following best season of career
She joins Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff and Amanda Anisimova in the elite eight-player field.
American Madison Keys has become the fifth player to qualify for the WTA Finals in Riyadh, the WTA announced on Friday morning.
Currently No. 5 on the race standings, she joins No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, No. 2 Iga Swiatek, No. 3 Coco Gauff and No. 4 Amanda Anisimova in the elite eight-player field, with three more spots up for grabs.
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Keys’ qualification comes off the heels of the best season of her career, highlighted capturing the first Grand Slam title of her career at the Australian Open. And she ran the gauntlet to do it, defeating Swiatek in the semifinals (saving a match point) and Sabalenka in the final to become the first woman to beat both of the Top 2 at a Grand Slam since 2009 (Svetlana Kuznetsova at Roland Garros).
That run was part of a career-best 16-match winning streak between January and March that also included winning a WTA 500 lead-up title in Auckland and reaching the semifinals of Indian Wells, where her streak was ultimately snapped by Sabalenka.
In addition to those results, she’s also reached one more semifinal this year at Queen’s Club and four more quarterfinals at Auckland, Madrid, Roland Garros (where she fell to Gauff) and Montreal.
On January 27th, after the Australian Open, Keys jumped back to her previous career-high of No. 7 on the WTA rankings, which she had first reached in 2016. She then set a new career-high of No. 6 two weeks later on February 10th, then another new career-high of No. 5—her Top 5 debut—two weeks after that, on February 24th.
Keys will be playing the WTA Finals for the second time in her career, having played the event in 2016 when it was held in Singapore.
That year she was eliminated in the round-robin stage after putting together a 1-2 win-loss record, beating Dominika Cibulkova but falling to Angelique Kerber and Simona Halep. She was actually part of a three-way tie at 1-2 with Cibulkova and Halep, with Kerber going 3-0, and Cibulkova advanced to the semifinals with Kerber on sets.
Cibulkova went on to win the title, defeating Kerber in the final.
Now, nine years and five locations later (Shenzhen, Guadalajara, Fort Worth, Cancun and Riyadh), Keys has another shot at year-end glory.