{"id":15765,"date":"2026-01-26T06:30:31","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T06:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=15765"},"modified":"2026-01-26T06:30:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T06:30:31","slug":"australian-open-2026-jessica-pegula-ends-madison-keys-title-defence-and-wins-apple-pie-bet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=15765","title":{"rendered":"Australian Open 2026: Jessica Pegula ends Madison Keys title defence and wins apple pie bet"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Keys had previously insisted she would refuse to eat the delicacy, but she admitted defeat and said she would accept the terms of the wager.<\/p>\n

“A bet is a bet, so I’ll do it. I hope it’s less gross than I think it’s going to be but we’ll find out I guess,” Keys said in her post-match news conference.<\/p>\n

Had the ninth seed won the fourth-round match and continued her title defence, Keys’ side of the bet involved Pegula – whose billionaire parents own NFL side Buffalo Bills<\/a> – wearing a Kansas City Chiefs jersey.<\/p>\n

“She wanted me to wear a [Travis] Kelce slash Taylor Swift Chiefs jersey,” Pegula said. “Honestly I had a lot of motivation today not to wear that.”<\/p>\n

The 2024 US Open finalist wrote “no Chiefs jersey today” on a courtside camera lens after her victory and the pair were seen chatting and laughing in the locker room straight after the match.<\/p>\n

Keys, who beat Sabalenka in last year’s final<\/a> at Melbourne Park, said she was “still really proud of herself” despite her exit.<\/p>\n

“Coming back and being defending champion, and dealing with all of the extra pressure and nerves – I am really proud of myself for the way I handled it,” she said.<\/p>\n

Fourth seed Anisimova awaits Pegula in the quarter-finals after she overpowered Wang 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 to reach her first quarter-final at the Australian Open.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old has yet to drop a set at Melbourne Park as she bids for a first major title after finishing as runner-up at Wimbledon and the US Open last year. <\/p>\n

With fellow Americans Coco Gauff and Iva Jovic already in the quarter-finals, it is the first time four players from the US have reached the last eight in the women’s singles at the Australian Open since 2001.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#Australian #Open #Jessica #Pegula #ends #Madison #Keys #title #defence #wins #apple #pie #bet<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Keys had previously insisted s… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[242],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15765"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}