Madison Keys withdraws hours before opening Madrid Open clash with illness

Another withdrawal from the WTA Madrid Open has come right at the last minute. Madison Keys has been forced to pull out of the event due to illness just hours before her second round match against Shuai Zhang. Recent Upper Austria Ladies Linz finalist Anastasia Potapova has taken her place.

The former Australian Open champion has been unlucky this year with injuries and poor form seeing her tumble down the rankings. She could only manage a last-16 at her title defence in Melbourne, losing out to good friend Jessica Pegula.

She then spent a period of time on the sidelines, not returning until the Sunshine swing where a brace of frustrating third round exits halted her progress. A much better showing in the Charleston Open saw her make it all the way to the semi-finals before losing out to Yuliia Starodubtseva in a surprising defeat.

It was a promising beginning to her clay swing as she looked to make the switch from green clay to red clay with no problems. However, this will have to wait with the American having been forced to withdraw from the Madrid Open due to illness.

This is not the first time she has been hampered by this. Her campaign at the 2025 WTA Finals had to be called off early due to illness, pulling out of her final group stage match. Her bad luck has seemed to continue into Europe. Keys will look towards making a return to action at the Rome Open with Roland Garros slowly creeping up.

Kets joins a hefty list of withdrawals. This ranges from fellow American Amanda Anisimova, Ekaterina Alexandrova, Karolina Muchova, Emma Navarro, Emma Raducanu, Sonay Kartal, Maya Joint, Marketa Vondrousova and Vavara Gracheva.

The fortunate player in all of this is Anastasia Potapova. The Austrian recently reached the final of her home event and is in much better form after a dip in the rankings. She failed to qualify for the fifth WTA 1000 tournament of the year but her ranking meant that she was in pole position to be a lucky loser. With Keys withdrawing, she took her opportunity and is currently clashing against Zhang in the Spanish capital.