Pegula on Keys' Absence in Austin: "I Don't Think She's Bothered Much by It"

Currently suffering from a leg injury, Madison Keys has not played a single match on the WTA tour since her title at the Australian Open.

The new world number 5 in the rankings had to withdraw from the first two WTA 1000 events of the season in Doha and Dubai, which took place in February.

The American could have made her return to competition this week at the WTA 250 tournament in Austin, but she was unable to participate because only one player from the top 10 can be in the draw according to the rules.

The ATX Open organization had announced at the end of January that Keys, who had entered the top ten of the rankings, could not be present since her compatriot Jessica Pegula had already confirmed her participation.

To justify itself, the ATX Open stated that at the time when the organization began discussions with Madison Keys to participate, she was outside the top 20.

A regulation point that deprived Keys of participating in the Texas event. Asked about this at a press conference during the tournament, Pegula, the number 1 seed, commented on the incident.

"It's difficult to say because you can see it from different points of view. Sometimes there are small tournaments before a big fortnight, like here before Indian Wells, so you might have a few top 10 players.

In this case, maybe it doesn't benefit the lower-ranked players who participate in these tournaments and are trying to gain points and momentum to make their way to the larger tournaments.

But at the same time, it's always difficult when something like that happens, like here with Madi, and she's not able to play.

I have to say it was quite an extreme circumstance, and events like this are rare, so I don't think she's bothered much by it.

She won the Australian Open, so I think she's still very happy," affirmed Pegula, who will face Anna Blinkova in the quarterfinals of the Austin tournament this Friday.