Pegula ousts defending champion Keys at Australian Open

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

The reigning Australian Open queen is out.

On Jan. 26, 2026, world No. 6 Jessica Pegula bagged her most notable win in the ongoing Australian Open after knocking out defending champion Madison Keys in the fourth round, 6-3, 6-4, to advance to the Grand Slam’s quarterfinal stage.

Still oozing with confidence from a dominant win over Oksana Selekhmeteva in the third round, Pegula picked up where she left off and didn’t give any room to breathe for the two-time American hopeful.

After a tightly contested first half of the opener, Pegula stole momentum by scoring a much-needed break point, which paved the way for a 5-3 advantage.

Keys responded with a sense of urgency after building a 40-15 lead in the ninth game of the set, but a demoralizing counterattack from Pegula leveled the fiery frame to deuce.

After almost four minutes of intense exchanges, Pegula got the last laugh with back-to-back baseline rally points to complete the come-from-behind effort and seal a 1-0 lead.

Frustration was all over Keys’ body language after another slow start, but she made it up with a service hold to only trail by a set point.

All hell broke loose when Pegula bagged another break point, backstopped by a series of net volleys and a crucial forehand topspin adjustment.

Midway through the second set, Keys took a risk by landing more flat ball strokes in hopes of slowing down Pegula’s high-kicking topspin.

However, Pegula didn’t rattle and stuck to her game plan by putting more pressure on Keys in the baseline rally exchanges.

“I’ve been playing really well, seeing the ball really well, hitting the ball really well this whole tournament,” said Pegula after the sweeping win.

After an hour and 18 minutes of slugfest, Pegula wrapped up the fourth-round victory with 69 points won—29 on return—and four break points.

“When I had that lead, I tried to stick with that lead as much as I could and tried to focus on what I needed to do and the patterns to look out for,” Pegula added.