Australian Open champion Madison Keys is no longer able to play in a WTA tournament in the United States in February, after its success in Melbourne made it too classified to enter.
Keys, who went to the world number 7 after Win his first Grand Chelem titleHaded in the WTA 250 level Open atx in Austin, Texas, which begins on February 24. The American entered the tournament as world n ° 21, with his American colleague Jessica Pegula entering as world No. 6.
But under WTA rules, 250 level tournaments (the lowest level of the main tour) are allowed to present only one top 10 player WTA rankingUnless the defending champion returns with a classification among the first 10. Keys’ race at the Australian Open, in which she beat the world number 2 Iga Swiatek and the world n ° 1 Aryna Sabalenka in consecutive matches, therefore makes her ineligible to enter the tournament.
The director of the Atx open tournament, Christo Van Rensburg, confirmed Keys’ applied withdrawal in a press release: “We love Madison and have been planning for months the excitement of his playing here in Austin for the first time.
“Although we hope that the first 10 rule does not apply to our tournament, we respect the rules of the WTA.”
The Atx Open is in the same week as the Merida Open in Mexico, which is a WTA 500 event. According to the WTA 2025 rules:
“A WTA 250 tournament during the same week that a WTA 500 tournament can only accept (1) player whose classification in simple WTA is 1 to 10 during the deadline for the main draw of the tournament.”
The players classified below the keys will not be able to earn enough points before the start of the tournament to exceed it, and it cannot lose enough ranking to fall outside the Top 10.
Its increase in the ranking occurs at the rear of a sequence of victories of 12 games, the American winning the WTA 500 in Adelaide before the Australian Open, beating Pegula in the final. The rule will deprive fans in Austin to see the last winner of the American Grand Slam.
The end of the Australian Open also brought a multitude of ATP withdrawals unrelated to the classification rules. Champion in simple male Jannik sinner retired from the ATP 500 event in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, citing the need to rest after his victory Alexander Zverev. The world n ° 11 Grigor Dimitrov and the world number 16 Jack Draper also withdrew from the event, which begins on February 3, while Novak Djokovic retired from the qualification of the Davis Cup of Serbia against Denmark after having torn his hamstrings against Carlos Alcaraz.
Djokovic defeated AlcarazBefore withdrawing from his semi-final against Zverev After losing the first set.
This article originally appeared in Athletics.
Tennis, female tennis
2025 The Athletic Media Company
