Jessica Pegula avoided wearing a Kansas City Chiefs jersey as she defeated Madison Keys to end her fellow podcast host’s Australia Open title defence.
Pegula will play another American in fourth seed Amanda Anisimova in the quarter-finals after reaching the last-eight in Melbourne for the fourth time.
The 31-year-old sixth seed is good friends with Keys, who won her first grand slam title at the Australian Open last year, and they host The Player’s Box podcast together along with Jennifer Brady and Desirae Krawczyk.
They recorded an episode before their fourth-round match, and decided the winner would choose a forfeit for the loser.
Keys decided that if she won, Pegula, whose parents own the NFL team the Buffalo Bills, would have had to wear a Chiefs jersey with Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift on the back.
In ensuring she avoided wearing the colours of the source of Buffalo’s recent post-season woes, Pegula will instead make Keys eat an apple pie topped with melted cheese.
“I had a lot of motivation today,” Pegula said after her 6-3 6-4 victory over Keys, with the pair remaining in good spirits as they were seen chatting in the gym post-match as Pegula avoided the forfeit.
“That was bad,” said Pegula. “She was, like, ‘Mine’s worse’. I was, like, ‘What are you talking about? My family owns the Bills. This team has owned us in the post-season’.
“All she has to do is eat a piece of pie. What is the big deal? I think that was really some extra motivation, because that would have been a tough moment for me.”
Pegula said the apple pie topped with cheddar cheese was her family’s Thanksgiving tradition.
“A bet is a bet, so I’ll do it,” said Keys. “I hope it’s less gross than I think it’s going to be, but we will find out, I guess.”
Keys, meanwhile, is set to drop out of the world’s top 10 after her fourth-round exit but said she was proud of how she had handle the experience of returning as defending champion.
“It’s obviously not the way that I wanted things to end here, but I’m still really proud of myself,” Keys said
“I think coming back, being defending champion, dealing with all of the extra pressure and nerves, I’m just really proud of myself for how I handled it.
“Just one of those days where I feel like Jess beat me, and I can kind of walk away with my head held high.”
Pegula is bidding to win her first grand slam title, having coming closest at the US Open with an appearance in the final and semi-finals in the last two seasons.
But she is yet to drop a set so far and will be confident when she meets another US Open runner-up in Anisimova, who is bidding to win her first grand slam title after defeats in the finals of Wimbledon and the US Open last season.
“I’m just really happy that the work that I’ve done with my coaches,” Pegula said. “I really believe in that and what we have done, and to be able to kind of execute that stuff in a grand slam, second tournament of the year for me, will give me a lot of confidence, not just here but just going into the year.
“I have always been the type of player where I get frustrated when I feel like I’m not getting better. And I still think that at my age, I’ve already had a lot of really great results. Being 31, I still feel like I’m improving as a player. So that is what gets me the most excited.”
