Jessica Pegula defeated her close friend Madison Keys to end her Australian Open title bid.
According to Independent, Pegula avoided wearing a Kansas City Chiefs jersey as she defeated 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.
She continued, “That was bad. 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.”
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.
