Ranking Reaction

Madison Keys reaches new career-high of No. 6, now three American women in Top 6

With Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula at No. 3 and No. 5, it's the first time three U.S. women are in the Top 6 since 2004.

ByJohn Berkok

Published Feb 10, 2025

MATCH POINT: Madison Keys wins 2025 Australian Open

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She didn’t play any tournaments this past week, but Madison Keys has risen to a brand new career-high ranking of No. 6 anyway.

The ranking shuffle comes because of Elena Rybakina dipping from No. 5 to No. 7 this week after falling in the semifinals of Abu Dhabi, where she captured the title last year. With that, Jessica Pegula moves up from No. 6 to No. 5, and Keys from No. 7 to No. 6.

Keys first reached her previous career-high ranking of No. 7 for three weeks from October 10th to 30th, 2016, then just got back to that spot two weeks ago after winning the Australian Open. And now, just one week from her 30th birthday, she sets a new personal best.

There’s more: she didn’t even start her season until March last year due to a shoulder injury, and has little to defend until the middle of the clay season in April and May, so she has a huge opportunity over the next few months to break even higher ground.

Keys left Australia on a 12-match winning streak, which is the longest winning streak of her career.

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And there's more.

With Coco Gauff currently at No. 3 and Pegula and Keys now at No. 5 and No. 6, this is the first time there are three American women in the Top 6 of the WTA rankings since the week of March 1st, 2004.

That was the week before Gauff was born (on March 13th, 2004).

During the week of March 1st the three Americans in the WTA Top 6 were Lindsay Davenport, Jennifer Capriati and Serena Williams.

WTA TOP 10 THE WEEK OF MARCH 1ST, 2004:

No. 1 Justine Henin (BEL)
No. 2 Kim Clijsters (BEL)
No. 3 Amelie Mauresmo (FRA)
No. 4 Lindsay Davenport (USA)
No. 5 Jennifer Capriati (USA)
No. 6 Serena Williams (USA)
No. 7 Anastasia Myskina (RUS)
No. 8 Elena Dementieva (RUS)
No. 9 Chanda Rubin (USA)
No. 10 Ai Sugiyama (JPN)

Venus Williams was ranked No. 16 in the world that week.

The next week (March 8th), Myskina would rise from No. 7 to No. 5, bumping Capriati and Serena to No. 6 and No. 7, and today, almost 21 years later, a trio of American women are in the Top 6 again.

Between them, Gauff, Pegula and Keys have won or been in the finals of the three biggest tournaments since last summer—the US Open and the WTA Finals last year, and the Australian Open this year.

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Meanwhile, there's good news for several standout players from the past week, starting with Belinda Bencic, who soars from No. 157 to No. 65 after winning Abu Dhabi, her first title since returning to the tour as a mom last October. And the player she beat in the final, American Ashlyn Krueger, jumps from No. 51 to No. 40—her Top 40 debut—after reaching the first WTA 500 final of her career.

Over on the ATP rankings, Alex de Minaur rises from No. 8 back to his career-high of No. 6 after reaching the Rotterdam final, where he finished runner-up to world No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz, and former No. 10 Denis Shapovalov jumps from No. 54 to No. 32 after winning the biggest title of his career at the ATP 500 stop in Dallas.

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