Madison Keys and Jessica Pegula recently shared their thoughts on how they would announce their retirement. The latter is currently gearing up for her performance at the Wuhan Open.
Keys’ latest appearance on the court was at the US Open, where she faced an early exit in the first round against Renata Zarazua, and on the other hand, Pegula is currently competing at the Wuhan Open and will lock horns with Hailey Baptiste in the second round at the Centre Court.
Amid their ongoing endeavors, they were recently seen discussing the ways they would announce their retirement in the most recent episode of their podcast, ‘The Players Box,’ which is hosted by Keys, Pegula, Desirae Krawczyk, and Jennifer Brady. In this episode, while discussing the retirement of Gael Monfils, Keys revealed that she wouldn’t inform about her retirement beforehand and would reveal it suddenly during a press conference. (9:56 onward)
“Would you want I guess my thing is it’s like would you want people to know that like every single match at every tournament is your last match at that tournament. So it’s like a thing for the whole year or would you, like, I think, I personally will just be like all of a sudden just like walk into a press conference and be like so guys that was it. Bye. No, it’d probably be like six months later and it’d be like, ‘So, as you saw, I haven’t been playing, forgot to tell everyone that I retired, but here it is,'” said Madison Keys.
Following Keys, Pegula shared her honest and contrasting opinion about making an announcement of her retirement, saying:
“I think it just depends on the person. I think a whole year of knowing that would kind of stress me out. I’d maybe do like half a year or something. Like the last half of the year if I did like an announcement. A full year is a lot,” said Jessica Pegula.
In one of the episodes of this podcast, both Keys and Pegula once joked about their contrasting marriage decisions.
Madison Keys and Jessica Pegula made their feelings kown about playing tennis after becoming mothers
Madison Keys and Jessica Pegula opened up about their honest thoughts on whether they would play tennis professionally after motherhood. The former is married to her coach, Bjorn Fratangelo, and the latter is engaged to her counterpart, Taylor Gahagen.
However, both the players are yet to experience motherhood, and in the latest episode of their podcast, their co-host, Jessica Brady, asked them if they would play tennis after becoming mothers. Giving a straight ‘no,’ Pegula said that she respects the ones who play pro tennis after having kids, but she won’t do it. (11:59 onwards)
“No. There is no chance I would come back after having a kid. I admire and respect the ones that do but that’s just not on the cards for me. I cannot see myself doing that at all.”
Resonating with Pegula’s thoughts, Keys said:
“I don’t see that happening. I also feel like I have a hard enough time traveling and keeping myself on a schedule. I can’t imagine adding a baby to that. Like, for all people involved, I just feel that would be really, really hard,” said Madison Keys.
Jessica Pegula and Madison Keys made frustrations clear about unexpected match delays in one of the episodes of their podcast in August this year.
Edited by Tushhita Barua