Madison Keys weighs in on whether casual tennis fans are bad for the sport

Madison Keys has seen a lot change in tennis since she first broke through on the WTA Tour.

Keys picked up her first win at just 14 years old back in 2009. Nearly two decades later, she’s still competing at the top level.

The American is best known for her Grand Slam achievements, notably winning the Australian Open title last year.

Keys shares thoughts on how tennis can bring in more casual fans

After getting her Charleston Open campaign off to a winning start with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Vekic, Keys was asked during her press conference about how tennis might draw in more casual viewers.

Keys didn’t dismiss the challenge but was quick to add that she doesn’t see casual fans as a problem for the sport.

She pointed out that helping fans connect with players beyond just their on-court results is something tennis has started to do better in recent years. Keys thinks highlighting personalities and stories can help pull more people in.

“I think it would actually be really hard to get the kind of casual fan to tune in more,” said Keys. “There’s so much tennis and it’s all of the time, so I think to ask people to be in it all the time I don’t think is realistic, in the same way I don’t watch a lot of other sports in general, but in the same way that everyone tunes in for the NBA Finals.”

“You might not have watched the whole season, but you have way more eyes on the NBA Finals. So I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing. I think you have the opportunity to get a few of those who are sitting on the fence of being a casual, and how do you persuade a few more of them to get more into it? I think a lot of that comes through storytelling and showing more of the personalities of the players.”

“I’ve found that tennis fans will religiously follow you and wake up and watch all of your matches when they get to know you because they have a connection. And I think that’s a really good thing that the tour is starting to do a really good job of showcasing –more than just names you are going see all of time.”

“You want showcase players winning 250s and winning 500s, having run their lives somewhere, then capturing all those people who fall love with runs get them pay attention all weeks.”

Madison Keys hopes the WTA Finals land somewhere with a strong tennis culture after leaving Saudi Arabia

The subject of casual fans came up as part of a larger conversation about the WTA Finals, which are set to move away from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, after this year’s tournament.

Keys has qualified for the event twice in her career, including last season. She said she’d like to see the Finals move to a place where there’s real enthusiasm for the sport.

“I always go back and forth on if I feel like it should be in one place and given the opportunity to really grow or if I really like the fact that it gets to move around and tennis fans from all over get to experience it,” said Keys.

“I really don’t know where I land on if I want one thing or the other, but I just really want it to go to a place where people love tennis and they’ll come out and they’ll support. I mean it’s the thing we all dream of playing, it’s the event of the entire year that everyone is talking about. I just hope it’s in a place that tennis fans get to see it and appreciate it and it gets to be the event that it deserves to be.”

The Charleston Open champion was then asked whether she thinks fans outside of tennis understand how important qualifying for this tournament is.

“I think if you are a hardcore tennis fan you appreciate it,” Keys responded. “I think more of the kind of surface level tennis fans, we kind of all know that they just check in and check out around Slams and stuff.

“But I mean it’s literally the race to Finals, it’s only something we talk about so I would hope true fans appreciate what we’re racing too (laughs).”

Among those being talked about are Charlotte (USA) as well as Gdansk (Poland).

This time around Keys is not looking likely at this stage in qualification as she currently sits 23rd in ranking points for 2024, so unless there is a late surge on her part she won’t be attending.

Read more: