Professional tennis is a world of bright lights, roaring crowds, and high-stakes matches, but sometimes, the best stories unfold far from center court. For Jessica Pegula, Madison Keys, Jennifer Brady, and Desirae Krawczyk, the game’s most memorable moments often happen in the most unexpected places—bathrooms, locker rooms, and hurried airport lounges. Their recent conversation on The Player’s Box podcast peeled back the curtain on the less glamorous, but deeply human, side of life on tour.
Jessica Pegula, one of America’s top tennis stars, rarely leaves the court mid-match. "I never take bathroom breaks ever," Pegula confessed on the podcast. "Maybe I can count on one hand the number of times in my entire life. But when I was playing Krejcikova, I felt my back tightening up at four-three in the first set. Luckily I won the set 6-3, and then I took a bathroom break." But this wasn’t your standard tactical pause. Pegula described a scene more suited to a comedy sketch than a professional sporting event. "The bathroom was gross, the floor was nasty," she admitted. "So I laid down two towels and literally did crunches and core activation stuff. I needed to make sure my back didn’t totally lock up on me. I was like, get my five crunches in!"
While Pegula was fighting off muscle spasms, Jennifer Brady offered a story that brought the house down. Recalling a match against Misaki Doi, Brady admitted, "I took a bathroom break once that I can really remember. I lost the first set, won the second set. She takes a bathroom break, so I’m like, I’m going to take one too. I go in the stall, fake a flush, then come back out. And then I lose the third set 6-0. The bathroom break was longer than the third set!" Brady’s experiment with mid-match mind games backfired hilariously. "No more bathroom breaks for me," she laughed. "I’m done trying to play those tactics. It’s not worth it."
The group agreed that, contrary to what fans might think, bathroom breaks are more about survival than strategy. Desirae Krawczyk chimed in with her own take on players who seem to make a habit of these intermissions: "There are players who do it every single match. They lose the first set, they’re going for a bathroom break. After every set—it’s just clockwork. And when they bring a water bottle and a towel in there, I’m like, what are you even doing? Are you drinking water while peeing? Are you changing clothes? What is happening?" Her sarcasm drew laughter from the group, but it also highlighted a rule that’s often bent to its limits.
Krawczyk wasn’t done with the stories. She recalled a moment of doubles confusion at the US Open that left everyone in stitches. "We went in and the physio said, you guys should take an ice bath. So I did a three-minute ice bath during this ten-minute break. And then the supervisor comes in and goes, what are you doing in here? Doubles doesn’t get that!" The others erupted in laughter. "That is unhinged behavior," one of them exclaimed, capturing the absurdity of the moment.
Beyond the mishaps and the laughter, the camaraderie among these players was undeniable. Madison Keys described watching Pegula’s semifinal nervously from home. "I was just stressed sitting on the couch," she said. "My heart was at like 110. And these two were asleep next to me while I was freaking out." It’s a reminder that, behind the memes and the mishaps, these athletes share the same anxieties and friendships as anyone else.
But it’s not all comic relief—these women are at the top of their game. Pegula and Keys, in particular, have enjoyed stellar seasons in 2025. Pegula, last year’s US Open runner-up, has captured three tour-level titles this season, making her the only player in women’s tennis to do so on three different surfaces. Madison Keys, meanwhile, achieved a career milestone by winning her maiden Grand Slam at the Australian Open, stunning both Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka in back-to-back matches to clinch the title in Melbourne.
Their journey to the Australian Open was anything but straightforward. The morning of the Adelaide International final, the two friends were frantically messaging each other about how to get to Melbourne in time for the year’s first Grand Slam. "Jess [Pegula] and I played in the finals of Adelaide this year, and we finished the match. We were both trying to rush to get to Melbourne and figure things out," Keys recalled. "Before the match, we were texting the morning of our final. ‘Hey, should we just fly together to Melbourne? We can just split it, we’ll finish our match, and what time do you think we can get to the airport?’"
Pegula was especially anxious. "Obviously, I know we’re going to go out there and compete; we were trying to get to Melbourne, there were no flights," she said. "I played Monday, so I had one day before the Australian Open, and we were trying to decide if we should fly private and just split it with our teams. It was just a conversation that needed to happen. We had no other option."
In the end, Keys triumphed in Adelaide, and Pegula sent her a heartfelt message afterward. "Jess sent me the longest, nicest message, saying you played unreal today, you could genuinely win the Australian Open," Keys shared. "I was like, thank you!" Pegula’s prediction proved prophetic, as Keys rode her momentum to a second title that year and a remarkable 12-match winning streak.
Despite a first-round exit at the US Open, Keys remains in a strong position to qualify for the 2025 WTA Finals in Riyadh. She currently sits fifth in the Live WTA Race, just ahead of Pegula in sixth. According to WTA rules, any player ranked between ninth and twentieth who has won a Grand Slam title within the year gains direct entry into the event. With a comfortable points cushion, Keys is all but assured a spot at the season-ending championship, set to begin November 1, 2025.
Pegula, too, looks set to qualify, capping off a year that’s showcased both her resilience and versatility. These two Americans, who once worried about catching flights together, are now flying high at the pinnacle of women’s tennis.
So, while fans see the glory on the court, it’s the stories from the sidelines—the bathroom breaks gone wrong, the race to the airport, the nervous texts and heartfelt messages—that reveal the true spirit of these athletes. As the WTA Finals approach, Pegula, Keys, and their friends continue to remind us that even in a sport defined by its intensity, there’s always room for laughter, friendship, and the occasional unplanned crunch on a locker room floor.
