"There's more stress" - Madison Keys blames extended 2-week events as she reacts to Daria Kasatkina & Elina Svitolina ending their 2025 seasons early

The recent extension of several events to two weeks on the tennis calendar has been pointed out by Madison Keys as one of the issues that led to players like Daria Kasatkina and Elina Svitolina ending their seasons early. Kasatkina and Svitolina were vocal about the exhaustion leading to the end of their 2025 season.

After playing at the US Open, Svitolina represented Ukraine at the Billie Jean King Cup before announcing the end of her 2025 season in September. In a lengthy statement shared on her social media, she wrote:

"I’m giving myself the space I need to heal and recharge..."

Meanwhile, early in October, Kasatkina also wrote a similar statement pointing to the exhaustion due the tennis calendar.

"The schedule is too much, mentally and emotionally I am at breaking point and sadly, I am not alone," Russian-born Kasatkina wrote on Instgram.

While talking about this issue on The Player's Box Podcast, Madison Keys pointed to the extension of several WTA 1000 events in the past few years. She said that while players aren’t necessarily playing more tournaments, the calendar has become more demanding because many events have stretched to two weeks.

"You're at tournaments, there's more downtime in between tournaments there, and I think there's more stress of, okay, if I lose early, what am I going to do for the next 10 days? Because I have a really long time and it's not enough time to go home, but it's like maybe enough time to go somewhere else and train, but not really," she explained (from 22:20)

Even with rest days between matches, she said the schedule feels more draining overall, both physically and mentally. Notably, Keys has also not played since losing in the first round at the US Open late in August.

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Daria Kastkina, Elina Svitolina, and Madison Keys' record in 2025

Madison Keys at the 2025 US Open - Source: Getty

Daria Kasatkina began her season in December 2024 in Brisbane and went on to play 22 tournaments. She held a 19-22 record this season with no titles to her name. Some of her best performances came early in the season, with a quarterfinal finish in Adelaide, and fourth-round finishes in the Australian Open and the French Open.

Elina Svitolina began her season at the Australian Open and has consistently made deep runs. She finished her 2025 with a 35-14 record with a title in Rouen. From 27th at the start of the year, she jumped to World No. 13 with some solid performances.

Madison Keys holds a 37-13 record in 2025 after her early loss at the US Open. She began her season with back-to-back titles in Adelaide and at the Australian Open. She continued her good run with some quarterfinal and semifinal finishes before facing a dip. The American reached a career-high of World No. 5 in February.

Edited by Aliasgar Ayaz