Madison Keys Lifts Her Second Adelaide Trophy After Beating Jessica Pegula
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Madison Keys added another trophy to her collection after beating Jessica Pegula in the final of the 2025 Adelaide International.
The last WTA 500 tournament before the start of the Australian Open was completed, and the American fans were certainly happy about who played, as it was an all-American battle between Jessica Pegula and Madison Keys.
Pegula initially didn't plan to play in Adelaide, but since an injury forced her to withdraw from the Brisbane International, she changed her schedule, and it was a good decision, as she rolled through the draw without too many issues.
As the top seed, she bested Maria Sakkari, Ashlyn Krueger, and Yulia Putintseva to find herself in the final of the tournament. On the other hand, since Keys was unseeded, she had to play one more match, but that was not an issue for her, beating Beatriz Haddad Maia, Jelena Ostapenko, Daria Kasatkina, and Liudmila Samsonova.
Both finalists know each other very well, as they are good friends outside of the tennis courts. In fact, Pegula was one of the tennis players who also attended Keys' recent wedding.
On the court, however, they were rivals, and they battled for every point. Every. Already in the first game of the match, three deuces had to decide who would win it, and it was Keys who broke her opponent's serve on the fourth break point.
She held her one-break lead for a while, but only until the fourth game when Pegula leveled the score at 2-2. The top seed then led 3-2, but since then, it was a Keys show, as she won four consecutive games while losing only one game in each of them.
Pegula also wanted her own show in the final of the Adelaide International, and she got it in the second set. She was the better player on the court early on, breaking her opponent's serve twice to lead 4-0.
Keys was then able to recover one of the breaks, but that was not enough to turn the second set around, as Pegula went on to win it 6-4, forcing a decider in the final match.
It seemed that players happily offered each other the spotlight on the court, as in the final set, it was once again Keys who shone much, much brighter. On her serve, Keys lost only three points while also breaking Pegula's twice.
As a result, she won the final match 6-3, 4-6, 6-1, lifting her second Adelaide International trophy after previously triumphing in Adelaide in 2022. In fact, it was only her second event in Adelaide, and she has won both, which she referenced in her speech after the match.
"Looking forward to what’s to come this season. I haven’t been back since 2020. I was lucky enough to lift the trophy then. Now I’m back and I’m holding it again. I feel like I should just keep coming back to Adelaide. Clearly, I do well out here. So I just want to say thank you to everyone."
Both will now head to Melbourne for the 2025 Australian Open. Pegula will start against home wild card Maya Joint, while Keys will take on Ann Li.
