Podcasters Keys, Pegula plan trash talk segment before Australian Open showdown

MELBOURNE: Madison Keys and Jessica Pegula are planning to spice up their tennis podcast with some pre-match trash talk after setting up an all-American showdown in the last 16 of the Australian Open on Saturday.

The duo co-host “The Player’s Box” podcast with fellow players Jennifer Brady and Desirae Krawczyk, and defending champion Keys said they would be filming on Sunday, a day before their match.

A proposed wager had already caused some friction, she added.

“She wants to make me eat her disgusting apple pie with cheese on top of it if I lose, which I said I refuse, so she’s going to have to think of something else,” said Keys after she beat Karolina Pliskova 6-3 6-3.

“We’re both going to try to think of something to kind of commemorate this moment… 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 find some way to at least talk about it and hopefully make it entertaining.”

Pegula, who beat Russia’s Oksana Selekhmeteva 6-3 6-2 to advance, said there would be no awkwardness about facing her podcast partner.

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“We’ll see what kind of segments we can come up. It could be like a trash talk segment before we play,” she added.

“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.

“We could literally be friends and laughing till the moment we walk on the court. Then, in that moment, we both want to win and we both are competitors,” she said.

“The moment it’s over, you’re back to being friends.”

Keys holds a 2-1 advantage in their head-to-head record, having beaten Pegula in Adelaide last year and at the U.S. Open in 2023.