Tennis-Australian Open champion Keys knocked out by Pegula in fourth round

Tennis - Australian Open - Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia - January 26, 2026 Jessica Pegula of the U.S. hugs Madison Keys of the U.S. after winning her fourth round match REUTERS/Edgar Su

MELBOURNE, ‌Jan 26 (Reuters) - Defending ‌Australian Open champion ‌Madison Keys was knocked out of ‍the Melbourne Park ‍Grand Slam ‌after a 6-3 ‍6-4 loss ​to fellow ⁠American Jessica Pegula at Rod ‌Laver Arena on ⁠Monday.

Keys ‍struggled to cope with Pegula's ‍aggressive tennis from ‌the start and was too error prone to stop her title defence from ending ‌in the fourth round.

(Reporting by Shrivathsa ​Sridhar in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)