Madison Keys is flying high after winning her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open.
Keys is on a 12-match winning streak after winning both the Adelaide International and Australian Open to begin her 2025 season.
The American overcame the top two ranked WTA players to win the Australian Open, with Keys hitting crucial winners past Aryna Sabalenka.
Since winning the Australian Open, Keys has been congratulated by Serena Williams and many other top stars including Coco Gauff and Sloane Stephens.
However, Keys has now received her first setback since becoming a Grand Slam champion.
Tennis fans slam WTA rule after Madison Keys is banned from ATX Open
As a result of Keys winning the Australian Open, she has climbed back up the WTA rankings to match her previous career-high of world number seven.
This has caused an issue with Keys’ upcoming schedule, as she was gearing up to play the WTA 250 tournament in Austin.
WTA rules state that 250-level tournaments are only permitted to feature one top 10 player unless they are a defending champion.
At the time Keys had agreed to play the tournament in Austin she was the world number 21, with world number six Jessica Pegula also signed up.
However, now with Keys and Pegula both top 10 players the tournament has announced that the Australian Open champion will no longer be permitted to play.
This has prompted a strong reaction from fans, who have disapproved of this decision after Keys was heavily promoted for the ATX Open prior to her Grand Slam win.
“WTA rules are so so stupid,” said one account on X (formerly known as Twitter). “Madison Keys can no longer participate in the ATX Open because she reached the Top 10 and they’re only allowed to have one top player (Pegula) Sucks so bad for fans in Austin.
“They announced her months ago and promoted her so well and celebrated all of her successes, and now they’re not even allowed to have her because she won too many matches lol.”
Another said, “That is so stupid, wouldn’t it be a big boost to have her there? And yes I get the whole not wanting a whole bunch of top players so other get a chance, but it should be more than 1 & especially if when you signed up you weren’t top 10.”
While someone else on social media added, “Now this is the dumbest rule in the books.”
A different person suggested that this rule could actually be harmful to the WTA’s success, “It should entirely be the rank at which signs up were held.
“In fact the WTA rule restrictions on top players in 250s are just poor, smaller events without top players could become shafted and deemed not “successful” and further hurt WTA.”
A fan who had tickets for the tournament in Austin also expressed their disappointment, “That sucks. I’m going to the ATX Open and was looking forward to seeing her. What a dumb rule.”
The ATX Open begins on February 24, with Pegula, Ajla Tomljanovic and American wildcard Malaika Rapolu the names announced so far.
What is Madison Keys’ plan after winning the Australian Open?
While Keys will no longer be heading to Austin, Texas, there is lots of invested interest about where the Australian Open champion will play next.
Despite finally crossing the line to win her first Grand Slam title, some are suggesting that Keys could go onto more major success.
When speaking in a recent interview with Good Morning America, Keys revealed the two upcoming tournaments that she was targeting.
“I am pretty excited to just go home and sleep in my own bed, and sleep for probably two or three days,” said Keys. “But then it is kind of back to work for us, our year is pretty intense and we have lots of tournaments, so probably going to get back to work on Monday and get back on the court.
“And then we have a bunch of really big tournaments coming up at Indian Wells and Miami, so looking forward to that.”
First Keys is scheduled to play in the Middle East at WTA 1000 tournaments in Doha and Dubai, before Indian Wells and the Miami Open take place in March.
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