Madison Keys won’t eat cheddar apple pie if she loses to Jessica Pegula at Australian Open

MELBOURNE, Australia—Madison Keys and Jessica Pegula aren’t big on trash talk, but the good friends/Player’s Box podcast co-hosts are trying to make the most of their upcoming Australian Open fourth-rounder.

“She said she wants to have, like, whoever loses, like, the other person can come up with something,” Keys said of a burgeoning bet between herself and Pegula. “She wants to make me eat her disgusting apple pie with cheese on top of it if I lose, which I said I refuse, so she's going to have to think of something else.”

The mention of cheddar apple pie effectively derailed the defending champion’s press conference, members of the media eager to get to the bottom of this mysterious sweet-savory dessert.

“Yeah, it's gross,” Keys said in full stand-up mode, having comfortably dismissed former world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova to reach the second week. “We were doing this Thanksgiving podcast. We were talking about what's your favorite foods, your favorite desserts, whatever.

“Jess was like, ‘Yeah, it so good. You take apple pie. You put a piece of cheddar cheese on top of it, and then you, cheddar, yellow cheddar’—exactly!—'Then you microwave it and then eat it.’

“She tried to make it sound like it was the most normal thing ever, and we were all just disgusted. She tried to double down and said, ‘No, it's amazing.’”

Keys didn’t mention what her punishment would be for Pegula, whom she’s beaten in their last two meetings, but was happy to continue lightly roasting her friendly rival to round out her post-match press conference.

“I definitely made it worse in my head, because I was envisioning, like, a Kraft Singles gross, square piece of cheese. She's like, ‘No, you use a good piece of cheddar.’ Doesn't make it better!”

Pegula, who confirmed plans to record an episode of The Player’s Box before their match on Sunday, teased a potential live element to their match—with help from neutral co-host Desirae Krawczyk.

“She can go live on the pod during our singles match,” joked Pegula. “Maybe it will help the numbers on the pod. If we film tomorrow, we can kind of, yeah, market that it was, like, us recording before we had to play each other.”

Pegula and Keys launched *The Player’s Box* last summer alongside Krawczyk and Jennifer Brady, the Americans celebrating their first full season of podding with Coco Gauff serving as their first guest.

“We're trying to grow it this year, have more gas, kind of base it around depending on where we are, events in the world, things going on,” Pegula outlined during her Media Day interview. “So, I think that will be really exciting. We're excited.”

Even while the pair will aim to have fun, Keys clarified she won’t play games on the court.

“I've never tried to make a person laugh mid-match. I think that's probably the last thing that I'm trying to do on the court.”