Iga Swiatek blazes past Madison Keys in ruthless start to WTA Finals campaign

Iga Swiatek began her WTA Finals campaign with a statement win on Saturday night, dismantling Madison Keys 6-1, 6-2 in just over an hour inside the King Saud University Indoor Arena.

I could sense from the opening points that the Pole’s intent was unmistakable. The world No. 2 stepped onto the hard court with quiet confidence and quickly set the tone. An aggressive, precision-based brand of tennis that left her American opponent scrambling for rhythm.

Swiatek, the 2025 Wimbledon champion, won 12 of the 15 games and dropped only 29 points in total. It was a performance of pure control. One that contrasted sharply with the pair’s previous two encounters this season, both of which stretched to three sets.

Their rivalry had carried echoes of unpredictability this year. Keys saved a match point to defeat Swiatek en route to her maiden Grand Slam title in Melbourne, while the Pole returned the favor in Madrid with a gritty comeback. But under Riyadh’s bright lights, there was no such drama.

“Everything I worked on after the China swing really came together today,” Swiatek told the crowd afterward, her voice even and deliberate. “I found the right balance between being solid and aggressive. That gives me confidence to keep building my game this week.”

The numbers told their own story. Swiatek broke serve five times from eight opportunities and won 10 of 12 points on Keys’ second delivery. She surrendered her serve just once, in the early stages of the second set, before immediately reclaiming the break.

Keys, returning from a 68-day layoff after a first-round exit at the US Open, never found her timing.

Her heavy groundstrokes misfired repeatedly, and a rash of unforced errors — 15 in the first set alone — kept her on the back foot. It was evident her modified service motion lacked the rhythm she relied on during her Melbourne triumph.

“I’m not in her head, so I can’t say what was going on,” Swiatek said when asked whether Keys’ absence from competition played a role. “But I know from experience that being away can make you a bit rusty.”

Keys later acknowledged that she had been managing a minor injury over the summer and needed the break to recover fully. “It just felt like the best decision to take time off and be healthy for the Finals,” she said.

The result extended Swiatek’s head-to-head lead over Keys to 6-2 and marked her ninth Top 10 win of the season, which was also her first since capturing the Cincinnati title in August. She has now tallied a tour-leading 62 victories in 2025.

The four-time Roland Garros champion is seeking her second WTA Finals title in three years, following her 2023 triumph in Cancun.