Pegula ends Keys' reign to reach the Australian Open quarterfinals

In the first all-American fourth round match at the Australian Open in six years, Jessica Pegula ended Madison Keys' title defense at the Australian Open on Monday with a 6-3, 6-4 win.

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Something had to give in the fourth head-to-head meeting between the two Billie Jean King Cup teammates, good friends, and The Player's Box podcast co-hosts. Keys, who won a long-awaited first Grand Slam singles title in Melbourne last year, improved her unbeaten streak to 10 in a row with three wins this year, while Pegula entered the match 3-0 in Round of 16 matches at the tournament. 

In 1 hour and 18 minutes, the No. 6 seed advanced, and improved to 8-2 in Grand Slam fourth-round matches overall. The 2024 US Open finalist did it by breaking Keys' serve four times, and blunting the No. 9 seed's primary weapons. She returned more than 70% of Keys' serves in the match, and made just 13 unforced errors against 14 winners. That, coupled with 28 unforced errors by Keys, helped Pegula sprint out to a 6-3, 4-1 lead that she never relinquished.

"I've been playing really well, seeing the ball really well, hitting the ball really well this whole tournament, and I wanted to stay true to that and lean on a couple of things that I felt like she would do," Pegula said afterwards in her on-court interview.

"I felt like I came out doing it pretty well and got a couple of quick points for her early on. When I had that lead, I tried to stick with that lead as much as I could ... and tried to focus on what I needed to do and the patterns to look out for. 

"In the first set, she played a couple of really good games, and I had to focus on where I was serving, be smart, take some risk on a couple of second serves, change up the pace as much as I could. ... I had to really trust that I was able to change speeds and hit my spots on my serves. In the second set, I couldn't see anything into the sun, and I was like, 'Whatever.' I got broken [at 4-1] ... so I tried not to get too upset at that one."

The win not only continued Pegula's career success at the Australian Open, but also against fellow Americans. Since a loss to Keys in the Round of 16 at the 2023 US Open, Pegula is 28-3 against her compatriots -- and that record is 13-1 in the last 52 weeks.

There is the potential for that run to continue. In the last eight, Pegula could face No. 4 seed Amanda Anisimova, who faces China's Wang Xinyu later on Monday in Melbourne. 

More to come...