Jessica Pegula won her second straight Credit One Charleston Open title, defeating Yuliia Starodubtseva 6-2, 6-2 in 82 minutes. The 32-year-old American became the first repeat champion at the event since Serena Williams in 2013. Pegula's victory marks her 11th WTA singles title.
Pegula dominated the final on Daniel Island, South Carolina, wrapping up the match in straight sets. She faced just two break points and won 77% of her first-serve points, while breaking Starodubtseva's strong clay-court serve by capturing 56% of return points. This triumph followed a grueling week where Pegula spent 11 hours and 22 minutes on court in singles matches, including four consecutive three-set wins over Yulia Putintseva, Elisabetta Cocciaretto, Diana Shnaider, and Iva Jovic in earlier rounds. Including doubles, her total court time reached 13 hours. Pegula joined an elite group of multiple-time Charleston champions that includes Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, and Tracy Austin. In her post-match press conference, she reflected humbly on the milestone. > I was looking at the thing just to see who else has won back-to-back years, and I saw Serena, I saw Chrissy won it maybe like four times in a row... At least I got back-to-back, and I can see my name kind of next to some of those amazing players. > And anytime you can be somewhere in a stat with athletes like that, I think it’s incredible... It’s just special. Whenever you can creep into a stat belonging to those women, I think you take that. This is Pegula's second title of 2026 after Dubai and boosts her season record to 24 wins, leading the WTA Tour. She now holds an 11-11 mark in WTA finals and stands at world No. 5 ahead of the European clay swing.
