MELBOURNE
\nJessica Pegula used the threat of having to wear a Taylor Swift-themed Kansas City Chiefs jersey as motivation to propel her past defending champion Madison Keys and into the Australian Open quarter-finals on Monday. The sixth seed dumped out her good friend 6-3, 6-4 and at the same time consigned Keys to having to tuck into apple pie covered in melted cheddar cheese.
\nThe American pair are close off court, sharing a podcast, \u201cThe Player\u2019s Box\u201d They made a wager ahead of their clash on Rod Laver Arena \u2014 Keys had to eat the cheesy apple pie if she lost, while Pegula, whose billionaire dad owns the Buffalo Bills NFL franchise, had to wear a Chiefs\u2019 shirt. The Bills and the Chiefs have a long rivalry.
\n\u201cMy grandparents are Canadian, they have this tradition, my mum always did… they would melt cheddar cheese on their apple pie, so that was my bet for her,\u201d Pegula said. \u201cShe wanted me to wear a (Travis) Kelce\/Taylor Swift Chiefs\u2019 jersey. So, honestly, I had a lot of motivation today not to wear that.\u201d Keys reluctantly said she would honour the bet. \u201cA bet is a bet, so I\u2019ll do it. I hope it\u2019s less gross than I think it\u2019s going to be, but we will find out, I guess,\u201d she said.
\nPegula, who is chasing an elusive Grand Slam title after reaching the US Open final in 2024, made three consecutive Melbourne quarters between 2021-2023, but the 31-year-old has never gone further. Her win was well-deserved with Keys, who stunned heavy favourite Aryna Sabalenka in last year\u2019s final for her maiden Slam title, tense and out-of-sorts.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve been playing really well, seeing the ball, hitting the ball really well this whole tournament,\u201d said Pegula, who has dropped just 17 games in her four matches so far. \u201cAnd I wanted to kind of stay true to that, and then just lean on a couple things that I felt like she would do, and I felt like I came out kind of doing it pretty well.\u201d
\nPegula opened with a serve to love then worked two break points as she dictated the early rallies, earning a 2-0 lead and consolidating by holding to take a firm grip on the set. Keys finally woke up to hold serve, but mixed some classic shots with horrible errors, including a serve that almost hit the baseline and a badly shanked volley.
\nA clean-hitting game earned Keys a break back and some hope, but the serving wobbles returned.
\nBoth players were distracted by an air show in the skies over Melbourne Park to mark Australia Day, and three double faults on Keys\u2019 opening serve gifted Pegula the advantage again in set two.
\nDespite mustering some late fight there was no way back for the defending champion as Pegula emphatically sent her packing. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MELBOURNE Jessica Pegula used the threat of having to wear a Taylor Swift-themed Kansas City Chiefs jersey as motivation to propel her past defending champion Madison Keys and into the Australian Open quarter-finals on Monday. The sixth seed dumped out her good friend 6-3, 6-4 and at the same time consigned Keys to having to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527931,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-527902","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n