Naomi Osaka and Madison Keys withdraw from another event as injury struggles continue

Naomi Osaka and Madison Keys will miss an important part of the WTA calendar after withdrawing from back-to-back events.

Sports can be brutal. Talent and skill don't have to mean anything when an athlete can't stay healthy, and sometimes, that's not a choice. On the ATP Tour, Jack Draper is an example of a player who doesn't seem to be able to avoid injury struggles, and there are countless such examples on the WTA Tour.

Emma Raducanu, Marketa Vondrousova, and Barbora Krejcikova are all very talented players, Grand Slam champions even, but all barely ever complete a full season because of injuries.

In recent times, two more WTA stars have started struggling to keep their bodies healthy. Naomi Osaka has impressively returned to the Top 15 after her maternity leave, but now, she has started struggling with her body.

Osaka won her first two matches at the Australian Open this year, but then withdrew prior to her third-round match against Madison Inglis. The Japanese player then withdrew from the Qatar Open in Doha, and now, Osaka also removed her name from the Dubai Championships entry list. The WTA 100 event in Dubai runs from February 15th to 21st.

Madison Keys is another former major winner who has struggled with injuries at the start of this season. Despite reaching the fourth round at the Australian Open, losing only to compatriot Jessica Pegula, Keys, too, withdrew from the Qatar Open and now also the Dubai Championships.

The two WTA 1000 tournaments in Doha and Dubai are very important, as they offer a total of 2,000 ranking points to a player who manages to win both. That could mean a huge rankings swing, especially for players who miss the tournaments altogether.

For Osaka and Keys, however, these withdrawals won't mean any lost points. They both missed these two events, also called the Middle Eastern swing, last year, which is why they weren't defending any points this year.

It certainly is a missed opportunity to add some points, though. Osaka has been close to returning to the Top 10, while Keys dropped out of the Top 10 after failing to defend her Australian Open trophy. Paradoxically, the two are now separated by only 15 points in the WTA Rankings, with Osaka sitting at the No. 15 position with 2,366 points, and Keys being ranked 16th in the world with 2,351 points.

The draw in Dubai will definitely open up a bit in their absence, but the list of the favorites remains more or less the same. Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, and the only major winner in 2026, Elena Rybakina, will be the top three favorites to win.

Strong American trio Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, and Amanda Anisimova will be among those who could lift the trophy as well, while Mirra Andreeva will want to prove that her 2025 triumph in Dubai was no fluke.