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Madison Keys and Jessica Pegula recently spoke up about the challenges presented by the tennis calendar in terms of players' personal lives. Both WTA stars cast their minds back to their breakthrough years on the tour and cited personal examples to highlight the hectic schedule's drawbacks when it comes to being in romantic relationships and going out with friends.
Keys and Pegula, apart from being two WTA top 10 players, also happen to co-host The Players Box podcast alongside compatriots Jennifer Brady and Desirae Krawczyk. On a recent episode of the podcast, the all-American duo touched on the impact of the tennis calendar on their lives, with Madison Keys getting the discussion going.
Remembering how she was afraid of dating after turning pro, the 2025 Australian Open champion said:
"When I was first dating, it was a nightmare. It was literally like I'm not going to date anyone because they couldn't understand, where it'd be like, 'Oh! We can go out tonight', but then, 'I'm actually going to be gone for eight weeks so I'll see you when I get back?'" (from 19:35)
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Next, Jessica Pegula stated how her recently-engaged sister Kelly has to take into account the WTA star's schedule before scheduling her wedding.
"It's so weird. I feel like some people, they don't get because they're not in that world. So it's so tough. I mean, my sister, who just got engaged, she was looking at these wedding venues and she knows that if I'm going to be there, it can't be during the US Open. It can't be during Wimbledon. It has to be in a reasonable range, and I always have a hard time with that," Pegula said.
The World No. 6 subsequently remembered how early on in her career, her closest friends would ensure Pegula didn't miss out on their collective plans. According to the 31-year-old, she felt bad about the fact that her friends almost always needed to take her schedule into consideration.
"I remember when I first started playing on the tour, I felt so bad that my friends would ask me for major things and schedule it around me because they wanted me to be there," she added.
Madison Keys & Jessica Pegula recently played exhibition matches in USA
Madison Keys and Jessica Pegula both took brief breaks following the end of their respective seasons at the year-end WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Subsequently, Keys, the World No. 7, featured in the Charlotte Invitational exhibition event, where she defeated the legendary Venus Williams.
Meanwhile, Pegula played back-to-back exhibition matches against the fourth-ranked Amanda Anisimova. The first of these matches took place at A Racquet at the Rock in New Jersey. Here, Pegula came out on top.
However, the very next day, at the Miami Invitational, Anisimova exacted revenge. Despite the exhibition status of the match, the World No. 4 laid bare the relief she felt after finally getting the better of the vastly-more experienced Pegula.
