U.S.’ Jessica Pegula celebrates after defeating defending Madison Keys in the women’s singles at the Australian Open 2026 tennis championship in Melbourne on January 26, 2026
| Photo Credit: AP
Defending champion Madison Keys has been knocked out of the Australian Open by fellow American, and podcast pal, Jessica Pegula.
Pegula, seeded sixth, defeated the ninth-seeded Keys 6-3, 6-4 on Monday (January 26, 2026) at Rod Laver Arena to reach the quarterfinals. Pegula, who has never claimed a Grand Slam, won the first set in only 32 minutes.
Pegula raced to a 4-1 lead in the first set, and Pegula also broke to open the second set and again surged to a 4-1 lead as Keys struggled with her serve. The match ended when Keys hit a forehand into the net.
Pegula was excellent with her serve accuracy and kept the ball in the play with few unforced errors.
Pegula and Keys had played three times previously, and Keys had won the last two.
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Pegula reached the U.S. Open final in 2024 but lost to Aryna Sabalenka. It will be her fourth appearance in the quarterfinals in Australia.
Pegula and Keys are good friends and have been doing a podcast together. Keys had said earlier it would be the “first match in Grand Slam history between two podcast co-hosts.”
In a later match Monday at Rod Laver Arena, fifth-seeded man Lorenzo Musetti faced American Taylor Fritz, who is seeded No. 9.
In night matches, second-ranked Iga Swiatek was up against Australian Maddison Inglis, and the eighth-seeded man Ben Shelton faced Casper Ruud.
Novak Djokovic was due to be the feature night match at Rod Laver Arena on Monday (January 26) but has had a walkover into the quarterfinals after his opponent Jakub Mensik withdrew from their scheduled fourth-round match with an abdominal injury.
Swiatek beats Inglis to reach quarterfinals
Iga Swiatek ruthlessly ended Australian hopes at Melbourne Park dispatching qualifier Maddison Inglis 6-0 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals and continue her quest for a maiden Australian Open title to complete a career Grand Slam. Inglis, 28, had reached the fourth round after her third-round opponent Naomi Osaka pulled out of the Grand Slam due to an abdominal injury.
The world number 168 was the final Australian in the women’s singles draw.
Swiatek, who needed three sets to beat Russian Anna Kalinskaya in the previous round, produced a strong performance to defeat Inglis, firing off 22 winners.
“I felt pretty confident from the beginning. It felt like the pace of the ball was lot different from my last round. So I needed to adjust with my legs and really be precise with the footwork,” the Polish world number two said.
Swiatek whitewashed Inglis in the opening set, with her powerful baseline returns and movement proving too much for the Australian to handle.
Inglis managed to break Swiatek’s serve in the opening game of the second set, raising her arms in celebration to raucous cheers from Australian spectators at Rod Laver Arena.
However, the joy was short-lived.
Swiatek ratcheted up the intensity and, though Inglis was able to hold serve twice to add respectability to the scoreline, the six-times Grand Slam champion wrapped up the win in an hour and 13 minutes to enter her third Australian Open quarterfinal.
She faces 2022 Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan.
Published – January 26, 2026 08:20 am IST
