The WTA Finals has faced its first mid-tournament withdrawal of 2025, with Madison Keys pulling out of her final singles match of the round-robin stage.<\/p>\n
Seventh seed Keys<\/a>, who was competing at the year-end championship for the first time since 2016, was set to take on Elena Rybakina on Thursday, though has now pulled out.<\/p>\n Mirra Andreeva<\/a> was widely expected to step in to replace Keys, though it is in fact Ekaterina Alexandrova who will take to court in Riyadh \u2014 here\u2019s why that is the case.<\/p>\n Concerns grew for Keys following the end of her second match versus Amanda Anisimova, the Australian Open champion falling 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 after leading by a set and a break.<\/p>\n The seventh seed did not shake hands with Anisimova following the contest<\/a>, telling her compatriot that she had a cough and did not want to risk passing any illness to her.<\/p>\n Having already tasted defeat at the hands of Iga Swiatek prior to facing Anisimova, Rybakina\u2019s win over Swiatek on Monday ensured that Keys was officially out of the event after her own defeat later that day, falling to 0-2 in the group.<\/p>\n That led many to believe that Keys would ultimately withdraw from the competition due to her illness, a situation that has now ultimately come to pass.<\/p>\n In case any player withdraws midway through the round-robin stage, two alternates are present at the WTA Finals to step in.<\/p>\n Iga Swiatek vs Amanda Anisimova: What\u2019s at stake in crunch WTA Finals clash?<\/a><\/p>\n Aryna Sabalenka was \u2018angry with coach\u2019 as she addresses Anton Dubrov\u2019s decision to leave court<\/a><\/p>\n This is the second straight year that an alternate has been called into action, with Daria Kasatkina replacing Jessica Pegula after the American\u2019s withdrawal in 2024.<\/p>\n Heading into the tournament, the first alternate was Andreeva \u2014 who missed out on qualifying for the main event by just six points, finishing in ninth place in the WTA Race to Riyadh.<\/p>\n Finishing 10th in the Race to Riyadh, Alexandrova was the second alternate in the draw after a career-best season.<\/p>\n On paper, Andreeva would have been in line to replace Keys, and step in to face sixth seed Rybakina \u2014 who is already confirmed as the group winner \u2014 on Thursday.<\/p>\n However, the 18-year-old did not sign in as a potential singles player on Thursday, citing that she was not fit to play.<\/p>\n The Russian has been in doubles action alongside Diana Shnaider this week, and it would appear that she has prioritised her final doubles match instead of playing in the singles event.<\/p>\n Having signed in, Alexandrova therefore steps in to play Rybakina, a rematch of the Ningbo Open final from last month.<\/p>\n The 31-year-old has the chance to earn 200 ranking points and $355,000 with victory against the Kazakh on Thursday, alongside a fee for stepping in as an alternate.<\/p>\n Read Next<\/strong>: WTA Finals qualification: What Sabalenka, Gauff, & Pegula need to progress in Riyadh<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The post WTA Finals: Why first alternate Mirra Andreeva did not replace Madison Keys<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The WTA Finals has faced its first mid-tournament withdrawal of 2025, with Madison Keys pulling out of her final singles match of the round-robin stage. Seventh seed Keys, who was competing at the year-end championship for the first time since 2016, was set to take on Elena Rybakina on Thursday, though has now pulled out. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Why did Keys withdraw?<\/h2>\n
Why is Alexandrova replacing Keys in the WTA Finals?<\/h2>\n
Tennis News<\/h2>\n