Madison Keys is the first American other than Serena and Venus Williams to earn a berth at the year-end WTA Finals in more than a decade.
The last American other than a Williams to play at the season-ending tournament was Lindsay Davenport, a former coach to Keys, who last appeared in the 2005 WTA Finals.
Keys’ debut in the WTA Finals came courtesy of her winning a second career title in Birmingham, England, and reaching the finals at Rome and Montreal. She also played in the Olympic semi-finals, just missing out to Petra Kvitova for the bronze medal.
“It’s always been a big goal of mine to make the Finals, so being here is a huge accomplishment for me,” Keys said. “I definitely want to do well here, and prove that I’ve worked really hard to get here and I’m here for a reason.”
Keys, who joined the top 10 rankings at No. 7 earlier this month, is also the first American to debut in the top 10 since Serena Williams in 1999.
“I think it was definitely really surprising that I was the first American to break into the top 10 for that long,” Keys said. “There have been a lot of great American players who I thought had made it, but obviously not.”
“I just look at it as a great accomplishment and a huge opportunity to go out and play tennis, and have fun and maybe inspire some more young American girls to pick up some rackets,” she added.
Second-ranked Serena Williams pulled out of this year’s WTA Finals for the second consecutive year having won the title in 2014, the first year the event moved to Singapore.
Serena Williams, who has not played since a semi-final loss to Karolina Pliskova at the US Open, cited a persistent right shoulder injury as reason for not competing.
Keys, 21, is to face Simona Halep in her first of three round-robin matches today.
They are in the Red Group, along with world No. 1 Angelique Kerber and Dominika Cibulkova.
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