Tennis
2025-11-05 - Elena Rybakina vs Madison Keys
A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown
Tennis: WTA Finals Group Stage
Wednesday 5th November 2025 - Scheduled 5pm
2pm (British Time)
Preview
There is no need to worry about any permutations in this WTA Finals Group as Elena Rybakina and Madison Keys begin Day 5 play.
The former has already secured top spot in the Group having beaten both Iga Swiatek and Amanda Anisimova, while Madison Keys will be exiting the event at the conclusion of this match.
Motivation is going to be tough to find as far as Madison Keys goes and that is because she has already taken some time away from the Tour after losing very early at the US Open. She returned to play in Riyadh, but two relatively comfortable losses has ended her participation before the Semi Final and the focus may already be on getting ready to defend the Grand Slam title she won in Melbourne.
Madison Keys has a big serve, but it has not been firing as she would have hoped and eleven breaks of serve have been handed out in the first two defeats. This has placed her return under pressure, but the lack of recent rhythm has worked against the American.
It has been a different story for Elena Rybakina who had to put some solid results on the board during the Asian swing following the US Open and only just secured her spot at the WTA Finals in mid-October. This has kept her mentally invested and it has to have helped in Elena Rybakina being able to crush her first two opponents to win the Group with a match to spare.
Elena Rybakina has won three of the last four matches played against Madison Keys and she will still have some real regret that the exception was the Fourth Round loss at the Australian Open back in January. It was a match in which Rybakina had looked the stronger player, but Madison Keys was able to come through having played the bigger points more effectively.
Since then, Rybakina has had revenge over Madison Keys by crushing her at the Cincinnati Masters in August, and she has proven to be the player that can get a bit more out of the serve in the head to head. Elena Rybakina has been considerably stronger on the serve in this tournament too and being able to roll through those games may allow the World Number 6 to just remain aggressive enough on the return to win the third Group match and cover what looks a big number on paper.
Prediction
Lay the games with the favourite, even if Elena Rybakina has already secured top spot in this Group.
The Pick :
Elena Rybakina 2-0 Madison Keys
