BREAKING NEWS: Madison Keys Reveals ‘Everyone Was Sick’ at WTA Finals – Pegula Confirms Nightmare Puts her in slight risk due to..
Madison Keys and Jessica Pegula confirmed that a virus was spreading around during the WTA Finals in Riyadh, and the reigning Australian Open champion admitting that she advised her colleagues to stay away from her.
During this year’s WTA Finals, a couple of players appeared to be dealing with some kind of illness, with some taking medical time-outs and pills on the court.
Keys, who went up by a set against Amanda Anisimova in her second group-stage match, was visited by a doctor early in the second set of their match. After Anisimova pulled off a comeback to beat the 2025 Australian Open champion 4-6 6-3 6-2, the 30-year-old American gestured toward her chest and stomach area, indicating that she felt unwell and that it would be wise to avoid shaking hands.
Two days later, Keys withdrew from her last Round Robin match against Elena Rybakina due to illness. Mirra Andreeva, who was the first alternate in Riyadh, refused to replace Keys because she was also ill. In the end, Ekaterina Alexandrova stepped in and took on Rybakina.
Keys, Pegula discuss the WTA Finals virus
“I started coming down with it, and I was like, ‘Jess, stay away from everyone. Don’t go near anyone,’ because we were all dying,” the reigning Australian Open champion said on The Player’s Box podcast.
Pegula confirmed Keys’ claim.
“Yeah, it wasn’t great. It sucks when that happens, especially at a tournament where it just spreads. We’re all eating together, hitting, practicing, using the gym. So that was kind of a bummer,” the 2024 US Open finalist said.
While Keys’ Riyadh campaign ended after only two matches, Pegula managed to do a bit better and reach the semifinal stage. There, the American tennis star went up by a set against Rybakina before the Kazakh stormed back to win 4-6 6-4 6-3.
READ NEXT…..
Ben Shelton reveals he was in pain for a good 10 to 15 minutes after suffering a hit to his knee during the Felix Auger-Aliassime match, and also added that it might have been adrenaline that helped him play out the full match.
After taking the first set against Auger-Aliassime, Shelton found himself 2-4 down in the second-set tie-break. During the seventh point in the tie-break, the world No. 5 hit his knee – and as soon as the point was over – he started holding to his knee in pain. However, the American refused to take a medical timeout, and even managed to save three break points before the eighth-ranked Canadian converted his fourth set point to win an extremely tight second set.
Shelton appears to hurt his leg/knee, after which he double faults away the tiebreak byu/Large_banana_hammock intennis
Despite the injury, Shelton continued to play and compete well, but disappointingly got broken when serving to stay in the match as Auger-Aliassime completed a narrow 4-6 7-6 (7) 7-5 win in just less than two and a half hours of play.
Shelton: It hurt really bad in the first 10-15 minutes… But I didn’t feel it through the whole third set”It’s fine, yeah. I don’t know. I think it should be okay. It was just one of those where, like, hit it really hard on the ground. It hurt really bad for the next 10, 15 minutes. I wasn’t about to stop and call the trainer, then come back and try to serve down a mini break and stay in the set. I just kept going. Maybe adrenaline. But I didn’t feel it at all through the whole third set,” the American explained.
Since Shelton was also beaten by Alexander Zverev in his opening ATP Finals match, he now stands at 0-2 and won’t be making it past the group stage.
“Not the best so far week for me. Obviously that is frustrating and disappointing, being as big of a tournament as it is,” the 23-year-old admitted.
Shelton plays against Jannik Sinner in his last group-stage match.
Naomi Osaka is enjoying some quality time before kicking off her preparation for the 2026 season as the former world No. 1 is seemingly vacationing together with fellow American pro Taylor Townsend.
In mid-October, the Japanese tennis star competed in her hometown Osaka, where she made it past her opening two matches before being forced to withdraw from her quarterfinal match due to a knee injury sustained during a round-of-16 win.
Now that the four-time Grand Slam champion’s season is over, she decided to give herself some quality rest. And here is how her beach time looks like.
“Beaches and I just get along,” the 27-year-old captioned her Instagram post.
In another post, Osaka posted about dancing with Townsend.
How Osaka reflected on her 2025 season and where she starts 2026?This year, Osaka posted a 35-15, with the most notable results being runner-up finishs in Auckland and Montreal, as well as reaching the US Open semifinal. Also, the Japanese won her maiden clay title at the WTA 125 (Challenger) tournament in Saint-Malo.
“Took me a while to get my thoughts together, but here’s my end-of-year recap for 2025. When I sit and think about it I just feel very thankful this year. I’m thankful for the people I’ve encountered along the way, though our paths might lead in different directions, I will always appreciate the times we had together. I’m also thankful for being relatively injury-free this year (haha, I thought about it, and I was injured at the beginning and end of the season), anyways, I’m thankful for my health and being able to wake up each day ready to chase my dreams,” the current world No. 16 wrote on Instagram earlier this week.
Meanwhile, Osaka is due to start her 2026 season in Auckland, where she was up by a set in this year’s before an unfortunate abdominal injury forced her to retire versus Clara Tauson.
Leave a Reply