“She wants me to eat her disgusting apple pie!": Madison Keys and Jessica Pegula add fun stakes to Melbourne showdown

The Australian Open fourth round will feature an exciting clash in the women’s draw between the Americans Madison Keys and Jessica Pegula, friends and co-hosts of the podcast The Player’s Box, where, together with former Aussie Open runner-up Jennifer Brady and former doubles world No. 7 Desirae Krawczyk, they have fun commenting on the current state of tennis.

Both Americans will protagonize the first-ever clash between two top-10 players in this tournament. The campaign of veteran Keys (No. 9) comes after defeating former No. 1 Karolina Pliskova, while Jessica Pegula defeated one of the tournament’s surprises: the Russian Oksana Selekhmeteva.

It will be the 4th encounter between the two Americans, with Keys leading the head-to-head 2-1 so far, although the most striking thing: it will be the first professional match between two co-hosts of a podcast so far. “We’re going to go live,” Pegula said jokingly in the press conference. “Maybe we should tell Des [Krawczyk]. She’s here. She can go live on the pod during our singles match.”

Since the second half of 2025 – at the start of the American hardcourt swing – the four Americans have met to record the show in a relaxed way, where they joke, comment on current tennis events, and talk about their own experiences on the Tour. They have 23 videos and more than 7,000 subscribers on YouTube – with several videos exceeding 20,000 views.

“Actually, I think we’re going to try to record tomorrow, since we have a day off tomorrow to get our episode for next week,” the world No. 6 added. “But yeah, I mean we kind of saw that we were in the draw and then obviously we knew, I honestly didn’t really realize it until last round that if we both win that we would play each other. But I mean, we are so used to that it doesn’t really change that much.

“Maybe it’ll help the numbers on the pod. If we film tomorrow we can kind of ‘market’ that it was like us recording before we had to play each other.”

Up ahead, she will face defending Australian Open champion Madison Keys, who brings a streak of 10 consecutive wins at Melbourne Park. The current world No. 9 defeated her last in a clash against Keys back in the Adelaide International 2025 final, precisely the tournament where Keys began her streak that would last for 16 consecutive matches until Indian Wells.

“We’re filming tomorrow and, um, she said she wants to have like whoever loses, the other person can come up with something,” Keys commented in a press conference, laughing. “She wants to make me eat her disgusting apple pie with cheese on top of it if I lose – which I said I refuse. She’s going to have to think of something else.

“So we’re both going to try to think of something to kind of commemorate this moment. And I mean, hopefully we have more times where we meet later in tournaments where we get to play each other and, um, we can see how this one goes and then hopefully be able to capitalize on it and then see how we want to do it in the future as well.”

Pegula has already surpassed her 2025 mark – in which she fell in the third round – and will seek to reach the Australian Open quarterfinals for the 4th time in her career, while a win could put her close to the top-5. On the other side, Keys continues with the mission. Defend the trophy and the 2,000 points earned a year ago. For now, Keys’ wins place her as world No. 15 in the live ranking, although a victory against Pegula would help her climb one more spot – in an especially high-pressure week for the 30-year-old American.