Jessica Pegula and Madison Keys are good friends off the court but will now turn their focus to on court matters as an Australian Open quarter-final place is on the line.
The American duo set up a tasty fourth round contest with two straightforward victories to start play on Saturday.
Pegula defeated Oksana Selekhmeteva 6-3 6-2 while Keys dismissed Pliskova 6-3 6-3 to reach the last 16 in Melbourne.
Both players enter this match with different perspectives as defending champion Keys is starting to feel comfortable with the fact that she is defending a Grand Slam title for the first time in her career, “I think it’s still out there, but I definitely feel like I’ve gotten more comfortable just within the tournament. I feel like that’s typically the reality of most Grand Slams,” Keys stated in her press conference.
“The first round or two you kind of always feel those extra nerves, and then you kind of find your footing a little bit better and feel like you can find just a better level as the tournament goes on.
“I think at this point it’s, I guess, kind of become old news a little bit. So definitely feeling a lot more comfortable. At this point just really trying to kind of keep my head down and just take care of my matches and worry about what’s directly in front of me.”
Meanwhile Pegula enters this match having cruised through the opening three matches and is happy with where her level is at, “Really happy to be back into the fourth round,” Pegula started her press conference by saying.
“Yeah, I mean, I think I played some really good matches, been very efficient I think score-wise, you know, time on court. Today was really tricky. I didn’t know that much about her. She’s a lefty. I think she’s definitely probably going to do pretty well the next couple years. I think she’ll definitely swing probably into the top 50, I would imagine.
“I mean, she’s tricky. She’s a good player. Yeah, we had a couple tough games there, but I thought I was able to kind of grab the momentum when I could. Served very well. Just was able to execute my game plan.”
This match isn’t just about two friends competing in a high-stakes match as the two players recently started a podcast called ‘The Players Box.’
They join Desirae Krawczyk and former Australian Open finalist Jennifer Brady to discuss life on the tour amongst other things.
Ahead of the match Keys revealed they are filming a new episode of the podcast ahead of the clash, “We are filming tomorrow. She said she wants to have, like, whoever loses, like, the other person can come up with something,” Keys explained.
“I mean, hopefully we have more times where we meet later in tournaments where we get to play each other. 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.”
Meanwhile Pegula revealed what the group chat is going to be like and is hoping it will boost the numbers of the show, “But in the chat, yeah, I mean, they’ll just say, Have a good match, guys, have fun, go out there, whatever. It’s not that serious,” Pegula admitted.
“I’m trying to think. I don’t remember what they said last time we played maybe at the Open a few years ago. But, no, they keep it pretty light. I think they want us to have fun and have a good match.
“They know one of us is going to get through. Just as long as no one, I don’t know, falls and hurts themselves or something like that. It’s usually a pretty low-key vibe, I guess.
“I mean, we’re so used to it. Like, it doesn’t really change that much. But, yeah, maybe it will help the numbers on the pod. If we film tomorrow, we can kind of, yeah, market that it was, like, us recording before we had to play each other.”
So the big question is ahead of the clash, will there be any trash talking before hand?
Madison Keys: I don’t know if either of us really trash talks very well, so I don’t know how it’s going to go. I’m sure we’re going to, for sure, find some way to at least talk about it and hopefully make it entertaining.
Jessica Pegula: Yeah, maybe that’s what we should do. We’ll see what kind of segments we can come up. It could be like a trash talk segment before we play. Yeah, I guess it’s kind of funny. We’re so used to playing and being around each other. It’s not really that big of a deal.
Heading into the clash, Keys leads the head-to-head 2-1 with their most recent meeting coming at last year’s Adelaide final which Keys won.
