By Erik Gudris | @atntennis | Tuesday, April 1, 2025
Top American women shared their thoughts with the media ahead of this week's Charleston Open.
Photo credit: Credit One Charleston Open Facebook
CHARLESTON—The start of the clay court season allows players to reflect on the first four months of the season and the direction of their individual careers.
That was certainly the case as several top American women took time to speak to the media ahead of this week's WTA 500 Credit One Charleston Open, a long-time favorite event of fans and players, especially for the genial hospitality on display each year.
Top seed and top-ranked American Jessica Pegula finds herself quickly transitioning from reaching the Miami Open final just this past weekend. But for her, it's a nice problem to have.
"I think you always kind of aim to make your schedule and then you know if you're winning, then it creates a good problem having just to come here," Pegula said. "But I always love coming here. I love playing here. I don't really mind the transition that much to the green clay. It's pretty easy for me.
"I grew up playing on this green clay when I was a kid, so it's not really a huge change. I would just say as long as I'm feeling good, like mentally, physically and ready to compete then I'll always, you know, kind of want to come and play."
Madison Keys, a former Charleston winner in 2019, is certainly learning to adjust to her new status as a Grand Slam champion. The recent Australian Open winner has been open about the myriad of changes she implemented in her game for several months leading up to Melbourne.
That included changing her serve, her racquet, and her outlook on her career and making peace with possibly not ever winning a major title.
When asked if there was a specific moment leading up to Melbourne that she thought would indicate something big would happen for her, she felt that the small steps along the way led to "a door opening for her" down the road.
"Honestly, it was even earlier, just being more open to change and willing to try different things. I switched my racquet before the clay court season last year, I switched my string, started kind of tinkering a little bit and I think doing that I opened up a door of willingness to change and be a little bit more open to that," Keys said.
"I think in the past I had kind of always felt like I've gotten so close doing it the way that it was and without changes. So why am I going to try and doing a 180 and change everything? So I think kind of relinquishing some of that control helped a lot."
"And then it was just really kind of building throughout last year and then being able to have the off-season that we did. I decided to kind of finish the year a little bit early and just really have a good kind of block of time to get ready."
"I think all of those things, they were all kind of the perfect storm."
Danielle Collins, who won Charleston last year, is enjoying what she now calls "bonus time" in her career.
Collins who planned to retire last year, instead enjoyed a career-best season in 2024, including winning Miami and Charleston. While 2025 has been up and down in terms of results, Collins is savoring each moment both on and off the court.
"I like looking at this as 'bonus time' to get to do what I love and see where it takes me," said Collins. "Just to be out here doing something that I've worked so hard for over the last 10, 20 years of my life, it's just a little bit of extended time to enjoy this."
Off-court, Collins is expanding her family, at least pets-wise. Along with her labradoodle, Quincy Collins, aka Mr. Q, who joined her during Media Day, she also just adopted a new puppy, Crash Collins, whom she found injured on the side of the road in Miami. Adding to that, Collins revealed she also owns seven chickens.
"I'm definitely starting my little farm. So there will be more animals. I feel like once you get chickens, it's over. Then you want the donkey. Then you want the goats. Then you want the horses. I'm trying to control myself a little bit and not keep getting more and more pets, because it just becomes harder and harder to be on the road when it's like that," Collins said.
In the singles draw, Keys, seeded No. 2, will face Caroline Dolehide in her opening round. Collins , the No. 7 seed, will start her title defense against Robin Montgomery.