Jessica Pegula and Marta Kostyuk withdraw from 2026 Adelaide International
NewsMonday, 12 January 2026 at 18:47
Jessica Pegula and Marta Kostyuk will miss the 2026 Adelaide International, significantly weakening the draw for the WTA 500 event.
Pegula and Kostyuk are some of the best tennis players in the world. They are both ranked inside the Top 20 on the WTA Tour, and were two of the favorites in the 2026 Adelaide International draw. In fact, Pegula was the top seed when the draw came out.
However, shortly after, the tournament organizers announced that Pegula and Kostyuk both withdrew from the tournament, citing "scheduling changes" as a reason for their withdrawals.
"Jessica Pegula and Marta Kostyuk have withdrawn from the Adelaide International due to scheduling changes."
Paradoxically, Pegula and Kostyuk met at the Brisbane International. They both made it to the semi-finals, with the Ukrainian player prevailing 6-0, 6-3 to reach the final. She then lost the final match to Aryna Sabalenka.
Since they both played a sufficient number of matches in Brisbane, it's possible that both felt ready enough to travel to Melbourne for the first Grand Slam tournament of the season. The 2026 Australian Open starts on January 18th, and with the WTA 500 event ending just one day prior to that, neither wanted to risk being too tired for the "Happy Slam."
Madison Keys becomes the top favorite to win the Adelaide International title
Madison Keys won the Adelaide International last year before lifting her maiden major title in Melbourne. After Pegula's withdrawal, she is now the highest-ranked player in the Adelaide International draw, even though she remains the second seed, as the draw has already been made.
Keys will start her tournament against the winner of the match between Czech qualifier Tereza Valentova and Jelena Ostapenko from Latvia. Asked about her goals ahead of the tournament, Keys didn't focus on winning trophies or matches, but instead enjoying the experience.
"So my big goal coming back to Australia was, I know that there's going to be a lot of pressure being defending champion, not only here but also in Australia, or at the Australian Open. But, like, I know that pressure is going to be there, and I think there's kind of two different ways that you can look at it."
"You can either look at it and think, 'Oh, my God, that's a lot of pressure,' and kind of be a little bit scared about it. I'm really challenging myself to kind of flip that and think of it as what a really cool opportunity that not very many people get to have. Like, I get to go back here, and in Melbourne, and be defending champion."
"And I have all these people who watched my run and got to kind of experience it, and everyone always tells me that they cried. So I feel like I gained a lot of fans from that run as well. That doesn't happen very often, and that's such a cool experience."
"I'm really kind of just trying to think about that and think about how cool that is and what an experience. I just get to be really proud of myself for being able to give myself that opportunity. So that's been my big goal so far for 2026."
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