Madison Keys recently shared a playful reminder and engaged in a light-hearted exchange with Jessica Pegula, Jennifer Brady, and Desirae Krawczyk as they discussed Pegula’s birthday, accidentally forgetting to mention Keys’ birthday, which was a week before Pegula’s. The World No. 15 last competed at the Australian Open, where she failed to defend her title, crashing in the fourth round.
Madison Keys Calls Out Jessica Pegula, and Others in Jest for Forgetting To Discuss Her Birthday
Keys had commenced her season at the Brisbane International, where she advanced to the quarterfinal round, falling to World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, who won the title in 2025 and 2026. She then competed in the Adelaide International, facing defeat in the quarterfinal round to the finalist, Victoria Mboko.
At the Australian Open, she lost her fourth-round match to World No. 5 Pegula and also completed her bet of eating a pie with cheese, a traditional dessert of the latter’s family, marking a hilarious and harrowing experience.
During the recent episode of “The Player’s Box Podcast“, the hosts enthusiastically talked about Pegula’s birthday on Feb. 24, prompting Keys to reveal her unforced error of the week, a segment of the podcast where the players share comical situations they recently went through, highlighting how the trio forgot her birthday discussion, which came on Feb. 17, a week before Pegula’s.
Keys mentioned highlighting her playful jab, “I guess my unforced error was going through our rundown of our episode today and it’s like, it’s Jess’s birthday. It’s Jess’s birthday. Let’s talk about Jess’s birthday. And we filmed at the exact same time last week, and my birthday was going down, and no one even mentioned it. So, I’m a little salty.”
To which Brady replied, acknowledging the slip-up they did, “Oh, that’s an unforced error,” and Krawczyk continued the sentiment, “That’s a big unforced error.”
The birthday girl, Pegula, also mentioned the group’s huge mistake, hilariously, “That’s an unforced error on us, on all of us, on our team, the whole everybody. We kind of did you dirty, like, big time.”
To which Keys continued, “I was going through it and I was like, “Oh, we’re like really acknowledging Jess’s birthday exactly one week after mine.”
Pegula won the Dubai Tennis Championship after surpassing Elina Svitolina, securing her 10th WTA singles title and her fourth WTA 1000 title. During her speech, the star also highlighted that she had received her birthday present, “It’s a great birthday present for me. I get to celebrate by flying back home in a few hours. But I’m just super happy to go home with the trophy. It was a great week.”
With the win, Pegula also ended her title drought, as she had clinched her last title in 2025 at the Bad Homburg Open after defeating World No. 2 Iga Świątek.
