A year after winning her first Grand Slam title in Melbourne, Madison Keys saw her bid for a repeat end on Monday at the hands of another American looking to follow in Keys’ footsteps at the Australian Open.
Sixth-seeded Jessica Pegula swept the ninth-seeded Keys 6-3, 6-4 in a battle of best friends, advancing to the quarterfinals for the fourth time in six years.
Up next for Pegula is another high-seeded American after No. 4 Amanda Anisimova defeated Xinyu Wang of China 7-6 (4), 6-4.
Pegula jumped Keys early, breaking serve the first chance she got en route to a 3-0 lead. Keys got the service game back on her third break point in the seventh game to make it 4-3 but promptly lost her serve again.
The trend continued as Pegula broke Keys to open the second set then broke her again to go up 4-1 and cruise to the straight-sets win. Pegula, 31, won 10 more service points than Keys, despite the latter posting four aces to Pegula’s two. But the big culprit for Keys’ service struggles was double faulting, which she did six times to just once for Pegula.
Keys also committed 28 unforced errors, more than double Pegula’s 13.
“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. “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.”
Pegula has never made it past the quarterfinals in Australia. In fact, she has made it past the quarters of any major only once, in her 2024 run to the final of the U.S. Open, which she lost to Aryna Sabalenka.
According to the WTA Tour, Pegula has won 28 of her last 31 matches against other Americans.
Looking to complete her career Grand Slam, No. 2 seed Iga Swiatek of Poland eased to a 6-0, 6-3 win in 73 minutes against Aussie qualifier Maddison Inglis.
Swiatek will take on No. 5 seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan following a 6-1, 6-3 defeat of Belgium’s Elise Mertens.
Swiatek is 6-5 all-time against Rybakina, who won their only previous clash in Melbourne 6-4, 6-4 in the fourth round in 2023.
“I wouldn’t say head-to-head matters,” Swiatek said. “Because even when one of us was winning, it was always, I don’t know, a tight match or she beat me easy. Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t make sense to overanalyze who won the last ones or how it has been looking.
“Every match is a different story. Like on every match she’s been a tough opponent, and her tennis for sure is great. I need to be 100% ready and go for it and use my experience and also the knowledge from previous matches, and that’s it.”
–Field Level Media
