Jessica Pegula knocks out defending champion Keys to reach Australian Open quarter-finals

Defending champion Madison Keys was eliminated from the Australian Open after falling to her compatriot Jessica Pegula 6–3, 6–4 in the fourth round. The world No. 6 took advantage of her rival’s errors and came out victorious in a tight encounter, reaching the quarter-finals in Melbourne for the fourth time in her career.

A convincing Pegula took revenge for their most recent meeting a year earlier at the Brisbane International final – just before Keys’ breakthrough to win the 2025 Australian Open title. Keys’ defeat marks the exit of another top-10 player, adding to the earlier eliminations of Paolini, Bencic and Andreeva.

After her exit, Keys will drop six positions in the rankings to world No. 15 – not a bad outcome considering she was defending 2,500 points during the first month of the year, more than half of the points she accumulated throughout last season.

Pegula, meanwhile, is still waiting to find out her quarter-final opponent, who will come from the match between Amanda Anisimova and Xinyu Wang. The 31-year-old American is aiming to finally move past the quarter-final stage in Melbourne, after three previous defeats in the same round.

The start of the match was completely favourable to Pegula, who came out playing at a high level and took a break within minutes to move ahead. After winning 12 of the first 15 points played, Pegula surged to a 3–0 lead.

Keys found a brief reaction – improving her first-serve percentage and breaking back at a key moment in the seventh game, after three opportunities. Keys managed to close the gap and make it 3–4, with serve, looking to level the score.

However, she conceded an opportunity to her rival and Pegula made the most of it. This time, the 2024 US Open finalist capitalised on her advantage and closed the set on serve, 6–3, in a set marked by Keys’ 12 unforced errors compared to just four from Pegula.

At the start of the second set, the drop in Pegula’s first-serve percentage became evident, making it harder for her to win quick points as she had in the opening set. Even so, Keys remained erratic and once again surrendered her serve early in the set.

This time Pegula moved ahead 2–0 within minutes and began to find a clear path to victory. The gap widened even further when Pegula secured a double break to take a 4–1 lead.

It seemed practically over, and although Keys attempted a comeback – recovering one of the breaks – Pegula ultimately showed her class and held serve to seal the victory 6–3, 6–4 after one hour and 19 minutes.

For Pegula, this marks her ninth quarter-final appearance at Grand Slam tournaments (with a 2–6 record so far), and her fourth time in Melbourne (2021–2023), although she has always ended up falling at the quarter-final stage. She now awaits her opponent, who will emerge from the match between fourth seed Amanda Anisimova and surprise Chinese player Xinyu Wang.

Pegula’s win eliminates yet another top-10 player, and for now the six players from the top six remain in contention – still waiting to see whether Swiatek, Anisimova and Rybakina can live up to their favouritism and join the quarter-final match-ups.

Keys, for her part, will drop a few positions in the WTA rankings to No. 15 – although she avoided a steeper fall thanks to several consecutive victories. The American will travel to the Middle East for her next challenges at the WTA 1000 Doha Open and Dubai – two tournaments where she is not defending points and which will offer a chance to regain ranking positions.