Pegula Soars Over Starodubtseva and Defends Charleston Title

By Erik Gudris | Sunday, April 5, 2026
Photo credit: Charleston Tennis LLC

Jessica Pegula saved her best for last after a long week in Charleston.

The top-seeded Pegula produced her best tennis all week in the Lowcountry as she successfully defended her WTA 500 title at the Credit One Charleston Open.

Pegula enjoyed a straight-sets 6-2, 6-2 victory over surprise finalist Yuliia Starodubtseva of Ukraine.

Entering the final, the World No. 5 Pegula played over 10 hours of tennis in four straight three-set matches. Yet fatigue did not seem to be an issue as she raised her level in Sunday’s final.

But that was nothing new for Pegula, who in last year’s tournament also played multiple three-setters en route to winning the title. 

“It was definitely a tough path last year and this year,” Pegula told Tennis Channel after the final. “And I think sometimes when you win a tournament, you kind of like romanticize like, oh, it was so easy and it’s usually not. Like there’s usually some days where it’s really hard.  And so I think I shifted my mind a little bit coming back defending.”

“I think it’s, it’s honestly great for my clay court season, hopefully, as long  as I can kind of stay healthy and keep adjusting and keeping out in that mindset that on clay can be a little tricky and it gets tough,” Pegula added.

While Pegula, 32, was in search of her 11th career title, this was all new territory for the 26-year-old Starodubtseva, who was playing in her first-ever career main tour final.

Starodubtseva, who was set to play qualifying before a last-minute withdrawal allowed her to enter the main draw, took full advantage of the opportunity in Charleston. She worked her way into the final with impressive results, including an upset win over No. 5 seed Madison Keys in the semifinals.

What makes her story even more impressive is that Starodubtseva persevered in tennis before her big breakthrough. After playing college tennis at Old Dominion, Starodubtseva competed in UTR events to build her ranking. She also taught tennis at a racquet club in Westchester, New York, for a while to help make ends meet. Before this week, she had never made it past the quarterfinals of a WTA event.

Experience proved the decisive factor earlier on as Pegula looked poised and in familiar territory while her opponent played tight. 

Pegula took advantage and secured the first service break for 3-2. With her trademark flat hitting, Pegula quickly jumped out to a double break lead for 5-2 as Starodubtseva struggled to keep up as her unforced errors grew in the set.

Soon enough, Pegula served out the first set 6-2.

Pegula continued to race through the second set with steady shotmaking. The American soon found herself up 5-0 after only an hour on court.

The only real drama of the match occurred in the next game, when Pegula served for the title. Seemingly freed up from the pressure, and with her back against the wall, Starodubtseva started playing much better.

In an extended 12-minute game, Starodubtseva fought off three match points against her and finally got on the board for 1-5.

Starodubtseva then held for 2-5 and gave the fans hope that a comeback, or at least more tennis, was on the cards.

Pegula would have none of it as she quickly reset in the next game. Pegula soon found herself holding a fourth match point on her serve, which she converted to the delight of the Charleston crowd.

For her breakthrough week, Starodubtseva will rise to a career-high World No. 53 on Monday.

“I think maybe not only this week, but like Miami week as well, I feel like I changed up a bit my play style and kind of like realized what type of player I actually am. And I think I’ll try and build from there on. I definitely played more aggressive tennis last two weeks, and I think it’s in my nature, and maybe I haven’t been letting myself do it in previous weeks, maybe tried to do more other stuff rather than just keeping it simple and be aggressive in certain moments. And I think this was like the biggest lesson in the last two weeks that I had,” Starodubtseva said about her breakthrough week.

Pegula is the first back-to-back champion in Charleston since Serena Williams in 2013. Along with winning her second title of the season, along with Dubai, Pegula now leads the WTA with overall match wins at 24.

“I mean, it was definitely the best level I think I showed today,” Pegula said afterwards. “So I’m happy that I was able to do that in a final, just being up a set and 5-0, and then she played two really good games and a little longer games, and I was like, okay, I don’t want to get back into this story line of me having to grind out this match. So I was really happy with the way I was able to just win that last game pretty convincingly just after all the matches I have been through. 

“And, yeah, it was definitely kind of a huge relief and just nice knowing that I can go home and relax for a couple of weeks before I have to start up again.”