Jessica Pegula used media day at the Australian Open to outline plans for turning a successful podcast debut into a year-long project while also assessing a familiar on-court rival. Pegula launched The Player’s Box with Madison Keys, Jennifer Brady and Desirae Krawczyk during last year’s US Open and the group have since recorded a steady stream of episodes.

“Yeah, it has been really fun to grow in that space,” the No. 6 seed said. “I think we’re excited to kind of start a full year around the slams and big tournaments because we really only launched during the US Open and then there’s really not that much going on in the tennis world after that.

“So, I mean, we’re trying to grow it this year, have more gas, kind of base it around depending on where we are, events in the world, things going on. So, I think that will be really exciting. We’re excited.”

The show celebrated its 20th episode with Coco Gauff as the first guest. Pegula described the process as therapeutic for a group of traveling professionals and said the biggest logistical challenge remains aligning busy schedules. “We filmed a lot. We filmed a lot,” she said with a laugh. “We are going to record again tomorrow. So we’ll have some content from actually being here in Melbourne, which I think is cool.

“I don’t know, it’s exciting. I don’t think any players have really done that before. So hopefully we can give some decent insight to kind of what’s going on and how we’re feeling…As long as we can get our schedules on the same track I would say is the hardest part. But we’ll see how it goes this year. But we’re excited to have a full year of basing it around a lot of different tournaments.”

On the court, Pegula is carrying momentum from late 2025 after reaching the US Open semifinals, reaching the Dongfeng Voyah Wuhan Open final and qualifying for the WTA Finals, where she produced one of her season’s best matches against Aryna Sabalenka en route to the semifinals. The pair practiced together on Friday. “Obviously, she has beaten me more times,” Pegula said, but added that their matches tend to bring out high-level tennis and push her to improve. Pegula will open her Australian Open campaign against Anastasia Zakharova.

Amanda Anisimova arrives at the Australian Open buoyed by a breakthrough 2025 season and a career-high ranking of No. 4. The 24-year-old American, who captured two WTA 1000 titles and reached two Grand Slam finals last year, has kept her on-court preparations steady and made just one visible change ahead of the first major of 2026.

“Well, it’s like pretty personal,” Anisimova joked of her decision to go back to blonde after a winning season as a brunette.

“So, like, I would go dark and I really liked it. But then after like a month it would look really bad. Either my roots would grow out or it would look orange. Didn’t really suit me.

“I was just tired of, yeah, the maintenance. I’m someone who likes to keep changing things up. So I wouldn’t be surprised if I went dark again in a year. We’ll see how it goes.”

Her 2026 campaign began at the Brisbane International, where she won a round before losing to eventual finalist Marta Kostyuk. Anisimova closed 2025 with momentum, including a semifinal at the WTA Finals, and used a brief off-season to rest and refine her game.

“It’s good to have a chunk of time when you’re just able to be at home and relax a bit,” she said dryly of her “productive” time off. “I think that’s also really healthy for us.

“I just tried to understand what I wanted to work on with the five weeks I had, and how we were going to get the most out of the training. I made sure to not take my time at home for granted. Every single day I really tried to appreciate just the time that I had because it was pretty short.”

Drawn in the same quarter as fellow Americans Jessica Pegula and Madison Keys, the defending champion, Anisimova could meet 2020 winner Sofia Kenin as early as the third round. She acknowledged the benefit of recent big-match experience.

“Just being in those positions for the first time, I think the second time around is always going to be a little easier. At least I have been in those spots that I kind of know what to expect.

“At the same time, it’s a new Grand Slam. I’m just really taking it one match at a time. Yeah, everyone is going to be very difficult to face here, but I’m looking forward to it.”

Coco Gauff spent media day insisting a new sports drama is worth the attention of her peers and her mother. Since arriving for the Australian Open she has been urging colleagues to sample Heated Rivalry, the six-episode adaptation that debuted at the start of the November off-season and dramatizes a long-running romance between fictional hockey stars Shane Hollandar and Illya Rozanov.

“I’m their number one fan, I think,” Gauff said when asked about her enthusiastic social posts. One of those posts read, “heated rivalry…. lemme give you your 10s 🫡 👏🏾” and her praise has been steady across conversations on tour.

Gauff described how the show first caught her attention: “I just kind of saw people talking about a hockey show, a gay hockey show. That interested me,” she said during her Australian Open Media Day press conference. “I was like, ‘Oh, six episodes, perfect.’ I just dove, like, right in.

“Obviously, there’s some nice spicy scenes. It’s such a beautiful love story, I think. I think that was like the main thing.”

Her endorsement has not been private. Gauff has recommended the series to teammates and other players, naming Jess Pegula and [Giuliana Olmos] among those she has told to watch. She also relayed a family reaction: “She gave it an 8 out of a 10, which is really high because she watches a bunch of shows.” Gauff added, “Yeah, I wanted the world to know about this show. I’ve been telling everyone. I told Jess Pegula and [Giuliana Olmos] to watch it today. We’ll see how much of the WTA I can convince to watch the show.”

Fans within the tennis community are joining the conversation, including Morgan Riddle, Naomi Osaka and others. On the common debate over which character to prefer, Gauff declared her allegiance plainly: “My favorite is Ilya on the show, for sure.”