“We’ll just be cheering her on”: Madison Keys reflects on her bond with Jessica Pegula off the court

Defending champion Madison Keys saw her streak of 10 consecutive wins in Melbourne come to an end and will not be able to defend the Australian Open crown after falling to her friend Jessica Pegula in the fourth round. The 30-year-old American will drop several positions in the rankings and will exit the top 10 after a year.

It was a special clash between two Americans, close friends and co-hosts of the podcast The Player’s Box — where, together with former Australian Open finalist Jennifer Brady and former doubles world No. 7 Desirae Krawczyk, they have given a fresh air to tennis podcasts, joking around their experiences on tour, with interviews, anecdotes and more — offering a great insight into what happens inside the WTA Tour and how a player experiences it.

Keys was asked whether she had any message for her rival at the net after finishing the match. “The last time we told Jess she was going to do well, she didn’t do well. She told us that we’re all banned from saying anything,” Keys explained in her press conference. “I don’t think she needs any kind of pep talk from me. She’s very sure of her game and how she’s playing, and we’ll just be cheering her on.”

Pegula prevailed by being better in the key moments, converting four breaks from five opportunities, while Keys managed just two out of the six chances she had. The all-American duel deservedly went to the world No. 6, who advances to the Australian Open quarterfinals for the fourth time in her career.

“Obviously not the way that I wanted things to end here, but I’m still really proud of myself,” commented Keys. “I think coming back as the defending champion, dealing with all of the extra pressure and nerves, I’m really proud of how I handled it. It was just one of those days where I feel like Jess beat me, and I can kind of walk away with my head held high.”

Pegula stayed in control from the very start of the match, securing an early break that quickly carried her to a 3-0 lead in just a few minutes. After taking the first set, the second one began in the same fashion: a break in favour of Pegula, who once again surged ahead behind her serve — this time moving out to a 2-0 advantage.

“I think she did a really good job from the start of being the one dictating and being in charge,” Keys analysed. “I felt like if I didn’t hit a really good ball immediately, she was in control of the points, and I was kind of struggling to get that dominance back.

“Especially in the second set, I felt like I had some opportunities to break that I wasn’t super happy with — just quick errors and not playing the best points in big moments.”

Even so, Keys highlighted the positive aspects of a strong week of competition, collecting wins over Oleksandra Oliynykova, Ashlyn Krueger and former world No. 1 Karolina Plíšková — all in straight sets. Keys sits at world No. 15 in the live rankings — cushioning what could have been a much steeper drop at the start of the year — despite defending titles in Adelaide and Melbourne.

“I’m really proud of myself for being clear-headed and trying to problem-solve. Overall, there were a lot of positives from this tournament and some strides forward. I think I was open to trying new things and implementing some of the things we’ve been working on, and that’s not always the easiest thing to do, especially here, coming back with that extra layer of pressure.

“For all of those things, I’m super proud of myself. There are also a handful of things that I’m going to go back and keep practising, and I have eleven more months of the year to try to implement them into my game.”

One of the topics the American addressed was whether, at this stage of her career, she still believes she can improve aspects of her game, or to what extent she feels the limits of how much she can evolve.

“I think there’s still a lot of runway for things that I can improve on,” said the former world No. 5. “I’m definitely finding that some things are harder to change at this point because habits are pretty set. There are some things I’m still picking up easily and being open to switching, and there are others that have taken a bit more time to fully figure out.

“Those are the things I’m still trying to improve, and the things we keep going back to. When we have opportunities to practise them, we really emphasise them and keep trying to get better at them. There are definitely still a lot of things I can improve on, and that’s pretty exciting at this point in my career.”

The American will drop in the rankings to No. 15 — just six places lower than a week ago. Despite not defending any of the titles from this month, Keys leaves Australia without a significant fall in the rankings, although she insists it is not something she pays much attention to.

“It’s kind of crazy that you think like that,” Keys said regarding her new ranking. “I think tennis players think much more about the race and each individual tournament.

“When I won here, I had about forty-eight hours to enjoy it, and then it was immediately about using that momentum for the next tournament. You still think fondly about winning, but the reality is that a lot of the time you win on a Sunday and play again on a Monday.

“We have to flip the switch quickly. We’re much more focused on this year, next week, and how to improve from the last tournament, rather than what we did last year. If we worried about defending all the points all the time, we’d be even more insane than we already are.”