In an opening match between two Grand Slam winners of the year, Iga Swiatek brushed aside Madison Keys to crush the American 6-1 6-2 at the WTA Finals in Riyadh on Saturday.
I just kept playing through it [injury]. It was just one of those things where I could never be 100 percent. I just felt like the best decision for me to have the best chance for the finals was to take some time and get healthy. Madison Keys
In the first round-robin match of the Serena Williams Group, the Wimbledon champion needed just 61 minutes to defeat the Australian Open winner in the season-ending tournament for the world’s Top 8 players.
‘Sort of [happy] with everything,” Swiatek said after winning 58 of 87 points in the match. “Especially my serve and overall focus. I was in the zone from start to finish and I really wanted to keep it that way.”
It was Keys’ first match in 68 days since her first-round exit at the US Open, and Swiatek acknowledged that such a long absence “can make you a little rusty.”
“I’m not in her head, so I can’t really say,” she said. “But from my experience, yes, if you don’t play for a long time, you can get a little rusty.”
It was nevertheless a clinical performance from the Pole to kick off the singles action at the King Saud University Indoor Arena.
After a pre-match snack on fresh strawberries, Swiatek, the second seed, ruthlessly took the seventh seed.
Swiatek won 12 of 15 matches and converted 5 of her 8 break point chances, and the 24-year-old now leads the head-to-head with Keys 6-2 after sharing their last two meetings.
Seventh seed Madison Keys had not played a match since the US Open and fell to the ruthless Iga Swiatek on Day 1 of the group stage in Riyadh at the King Saud University Indoor Arena.
© Matthew Stockman/Getty Images for WTA
The Pole has won 62 tour-level matches so far in 2025, most of them on tour, culminating in her stunning Wimbledon title on grass, a surface she had wondered if she could master.
Under the leadership of coach Wim Fissette, however, Swiatek played more aggressively on the faster courts, especially in the second half of the season.
“Technically, I definitely think the way I played on faster surfaces and the way I dealt with faster balls at times was a problem for me in previous seasons,” Swiatek told reporters on Friday of her improvements. “This was something I definitely felt improved on.
“Also the speed of the serve. I don’t know, I think I was somehow fifth or something like that in aces this year. That’s impossible. But my serve improved. I would like my percentage to always be consistent. That’s the next goal.”
Swiatek won the WTA Finals in Cancun, Mexico, in 2023, and got off to a flying start here in Riyadh, a repeat she had firmly in her sights, while Keys may need to win her remaining two matches in the group, against No. 4 seed Amanda Anisimova and 6th seed Elena Rybakina, to advance to the knockout semi-finals.
Keys, who returned to the practice courts after Saturday’s game, said she suffered a minor injury over the summer.
“I just kept playing through it,” she said. “It was just one of those things where I could never be 100 percent. I felt like the best decision for me to have the best chance for the finals was to take some time and get healthy.”
Keys is competing in her second year-end championship, dating back to her first breakthrough in 2016, and her record at the event is now 1-3.
Elena Rybakina needed just 57 minutes to get past Amanda Anisimova to open her WTA Finals campaign on Saturday night
© Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images for WTA
In the second singles match on Day 1, Elena Rybakina and Amanda Anisimova took the court having not played against each other on tour, and were left wondering whether the American could handle the pressure of her year-end championship debut, and how the Russian-born Kazakh would react as the seasoned veteran would appear in the final for the second time in a row.
As luck would have it, Rybakina Anisimova broke in the opening match and never looked back. She cruised to a 6-3 6-1 win in just 57 minutes and joined Swiatek in the win column to wrap up the day’s action in the Serena Williams Group.
“Amanda, she is a great player and a tough opponent,” Rybakina said after the match. “So I knew I had to serve well, and today everything turned out fine.
“I tried to stay aggressive on the return and I had a bit of luck in the second game of the second set, so I started to take the lead and after that it was easier to gain an advantage.
“I’m really happy with the way I played overall and hopefully I can continue to serve like that.”
Fourth seed Amanda Anisimova, making her debut at the season-ending championships, had few answers to Elena Rybakina’s serving power in her first round-robin match
© Matthew Stockman/Getty Images for WTA
Although her return match gave her the early advantage, it was Rybakina’s serve that kept her in control throughout, and her baseline consistency reflected the recent form entering Riyadh.
In her past six matches, Rybakina has only dropped three games on serve and saved a total of thirteen out of sixteen break points. She conceded just one on Saturday, which came late in the first set while trailing 4-3.
Rybakina simply erased it with an ace, 1 of her 3 in the match, and her holding on at 5-3 saw her book the opener with breaks, which she did to close out the set in 31 minutes.
In the second, Rybakina held at love to open, then broke Anisimova again in the second game on her way to building a 3-0 lead.
Anisimova got on the board at 3-1, but Rybakina won the next three games to seal the victory, just under the one-hour mark.
“I’m very happy to be back,” said Rybakina. “Thank you so much for coming and supporting us today. It’s great to be here.”
The victory sees Rybakina equal Jasmine Paolini for the most wins on the WTA Tour since the end of the US Open, with 11, while her season total rises to 55, trailing only Swiatek (61) and Aryna Sabalenka (59).
She also earned her 7th Top 10 win of the year, matching her best career mark from 2023.
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