Australian Open | From Podcast co-hosts to face-off: How defending champion Madison Keys and Jessica Pegula are raring for another show-off 

“We’ll see what kind of segments we can come up with—it could be a trash-talk segment before we play. It’s funny, but we’re so used to playing and being around each other, it’s not that big of a deal,” Pegula said after her 6-3, 6-2 win over Russian Oksana Selekhmeteva in the third round on Saturday.

World number ten Keys scored a 6-3, 6-3 win over former World No. 1 Karolina Pliskova to set up the fourth-round clash against Pegula. The duo have faced each other thrice till now, with Sunday’s clash being the fourth such meeting between the two. Keys leads the record 2-1, with her 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 win over Pegula in the Adelaide International in January 2025 being her latest win over Pegula. The duo faced each other for the second time in the US Open round of 16, where Keys scored a 6-1, 6-3 win. Keys spoke about the bond shared between the two and how they are back to being friends once the match is over. “We could literally be friends and laughing ’til the moment we walk on the court. Then in that moment, we both want to win and we both are competitors. We’re going to do whatever we can to get the win. The moment it’s over, you’re back to being friends. I think those are one of those things that I actually really love about tennis, because it’s taught a lot of us how to just kind of manage our friendships and relationships and be able to genuinely love each other and be close and all of that, but also still be really competitive,” Keys said post her match.

Keys’ win at the Rod Laver Arena on Saturday meant that the 30-year-old extended her unbeaten Australian Open record to ten wins. The American now has 125 wins at Grand Slam events, and her record is only second to Venus Williams’s record of 127 wins among active players. Pegula, who reached the 2024 US Open final before losing to Aryna Sabalenka, shared how she is looking forward to the match against Keys and how she is excited for the challenge. “She plays very well down here. Obviously we know that. She’s the defending champion. I think she’s kind of embracing that and has been playing some pretty good matches as well. Pretty straightforward. It will be interesting. I think I need to kind of go back to the drawing board and look at some things I need to change. The last few times I’ve played her, I feel like I just—she played well, I think, in Adelaide last year. I do feel like I’m doing some things better this year, you know, in the last six months, where hopefully I can use those tools, and it will help me when I play her in a couple days. I kind of need to figure out some things that I need to do differently against her, because I’ve lost the last couple times. She’s the type of player, when she’s on, she can beat anybody. We know that. I’m just going to have to use some of the tools I think that I’ve gotten better at, and hopefully they work. We’ll see. But I’m excited for the challenge to kind of hopefully turn that around a little bit,” shared Pegula.