Madison Keys has seen tennis change a lot since she first arrived on the WTA Tour.
Keys won her first WTA match at 14 years old in 2009, and she is still one of the top players 17 years later.
The American is most known for her Grand Slam success, with Keys winning the Australian Open title last year.
After Keys won her opening match against Donna Vekic in Charleston, she has revealed if she thinks casual tennis fans are bad for tennis and what she thinks can be done to attract more fans to the sport.
Madison Keys states what she thinks tennis can do to attract more casual fans
Keys beat Vekic 6-2, 6-3, in her first match at the Charleston Open, and was asked in her press conference about how she thinks tennis can get more casual fans to tune in.
The world number 18 responded by suggesting that it would be difficult to do this, but Keys does not actually think casual tennis fans are actually bad for the sport.
Keys then proceeded to suggest that the best way for tennis to attract more fans is by showcasing the players’ personality more, which she believes has been happening more recently.
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“I think it would actually be really hard to get the kind of casual fan to tune in more,” said Keys. “There’s so much tennis and it’s all of the time, so I think to ask people to be in it all the time I don’t think is realistic, in the same way, I don’t watch a lot of other sports in general, but in the same way that everyone tunes in for the NBA Finals. You might not have watched the whole season, but you have way more eyes on the NBA Finals.
“So I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing. I think you have the opportunity to get a few of those who are sitting on the fence of being a casual, and how do you persuade a few more of them to get more into it? I think a lot of that comes through storytelling and showing more of the personalities of the players.
“I’ve found that tennis fans will religiously follow you and wake up and watch all of your matches when they get to know you, because they have a connection, and I think that’s a really good thing that the tour is starting to do a really good job of and showcasing more than just the names you are going to see all the time.
“You want to showcase players winning the 250’s and winning the 500’s, and having the run of their lives somewhere, and then capturing all of those people who fall in love with those runs to then get them to pay attention to all of the other weeks.”
Madison Keys reveals what she hopes happens to the WTA Finals after leaving Saudi Arabia
The topic of casual tennis fans came as a result of a conversation around the WTA Finals, which are set to relocate from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia after this year’s tournament.
Keys has qualified for the WTA Finals twice in her career, including last year, and she is hoping that the tournament now goes to a location where people love tennis.
“I always go back and forth on if I feel like it should be in one place and given the opportunity to really grow or if I really like the fact that it gets to move around and tennis fans from all over get to experience it,” said Keys.
“I really don’t know where I land on if I want one thing or the other, but I just really want it to go to a place where people love tennis and they’ll come out and they’ll support. I mean it’s the thing we all dream of playing, it’s the event of the entire year that everyone is talking about. I just hope it’s in a place that tennis fans get to see it and appreciate it and it gets to be the event that it deserves to be.”
Where should the WTA Finals move to if they leave Saudi Arabia?
Charlotte, USA, is rumored to be a potential replacement…
Keys was then asked if she thinks tennis fans do not understand how big of a deal the WTA Finals is to players.
“I think if you are a hardcore tennis fan you appreciate it,” Keys responded. “I think more of the kind of surface level tennis fans, we kind of all know that they just check in and check out around the Slams and stuff.
“But I mean it is literally the race to the Finals, it’s the only thing we talk about, so I would hope the true fans appreciate what we are racing to (laughs).”
Some of the rumored new hosts of the WTA Finals include Charlotte (USA) and Gdansk (Poland).
Keys is not looking likely to qualify for the final edition of the WTA Finals in Riyadh, as she currently sits in 23rd in the live race.
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