“The Player’s Box Podcast,” hosted by Jessica Pegula, Madison Keys, Jennifer Brady, and Desirae Krawczyk, is one of the most popular tennis podcasts. Known for its quality analysis, the talk show featuring these four friends also features multiple interesting segments, with the Americans discussing insider stories from both the ATP and WTA Tours.
In the most recent episode, Pegula shared one such incident, exposing the top-ranked American, Taylor Fritz, in the process.
Jessica Pegula Reveals the Truth Behind Taylor Fritz’s “Trashed” Car
Pegula is one of the biggest names on the WTA Tour, having delivered deep runs in multiple tournaments in a row. She is currently competing in Miami, where all three other members of the podcast are participating in either the women’s singles draw, the doubles draw, or both.
During the latest episode of “The Player’s Box Podcast,” Keys brought up what she had noticed in the parking area of Hard Rock Stadium. She said that, despite their designated areas, the players’ cars were always in different spots, noting that Ben Shelton had parked somewhere else only to find that someone else had parked in his spot.
Pegula jumped in, talking about a similar scenario she had experienced. She saw someone else parked in her spot and thought maybe it was Krawczyk, but she thought, “No, that’s not Dez’s car and I don’t know whose car it was, and I was kind of mad,” and as a result, “I parked in Alex de Minaur’s spot,” she added.
Following this, Fritz sent an image to Pegula, which she mentioned during the podcast, saying, “Fritz sent me a picture of my car parked, and he said, ‘Is this you?'” She explained the scenario: “His spot was like super narrow. So, I thought he was giving me shade, like I didn’t give him enough space.”
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This left Pegula confused for a minute, wondering what she had done. So she replied to this image, saying that she had given him enough space. However, that was not the reason Fritz had texted Pegula, as it was revealed during the conversation.
“He’s like, ‘No, no, no, you and Amanda are around me and they don’t give me enough space,'” Fritz texted her. So Pegula was relieved and told Fritz that it was indeed her car. Given that de Minaur is the world No. 6 while Fritz is world No. 7, and their seeding is similar, both players have their parking spots next to each other.
So Pegula told him that she had parked in de Minaur’s spot because someone else had parked in hers, only to find out that it was Fritz’s car. However, something immediately clicked with her as she said, “Oh, that actually makes so much sense because I walked by, I was like, ‘Does Demon have a car here?’ I didn’t think he’d have a car, but there was an Asics shoe in the front seat, and I was like, ‘Huh?'”
Adding to her confusion, she said, “Sorry, Taylor, but that car was trashed, guys.” This left Fritz a bit embarrassed, and he asked if she had looked inside. To this, Pegula said, “‘Well, it was like right there. I just looked in the window and there’s Starbucks everywhere.’ And he said something like the back is even worse or the trunk is even worse.”
This shows that, despite being the top-ranked American, Fritz’s “trashed” car is infamous on the tour, with multiple players reporting the same thing as Pegula.
As for Fritz, the American was eliminated from the 2026 Miami Open after losing to Czech star Jirí Lehecka 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-2 in the fourth round. With this loss, Fritz’s hard-court season ended without a single title this year, having reached just one final in Dallas.
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Pegula, on the other hand, is set to face world No. 2 Elena Rybakina in the quarterfinals. This marks her fifth consecutive Miami quarterfinal and her eighth semifinal appearance in her last nine tour-level events.
This will also be the third meeting of 2026 between Pegula and Rybakina, with the Kazakh star winning their most recent match at Indian Wells. According to PFSN’s exclusive interactive simulator, she will enter with a slight edge over the American, with around a 60% chance of reaching another semifinal.
