OVERVIEW
The Charleston Open, currently sponsored by Credit One, is a WTA Tour-affiliated professional tennis event, held every year since 1973. The tournament celebrated 50 years in 2022 at the newly renovated Credit One Stadium located in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. It is played on the green clay courts at LTP Daniel Island tennis center (which contains the 10,200-seat Credit One Stadium) on Daniel Island in Charleston.
It is the oldest professional all-women’s tournament in America.
What makes Charleston stand out is its use of green clay (Har-Tru), a surface that differs from the red clay used in European tournaments. This gives matches a faster pace and often leads to more aggressive, exciting rallies.
THE FINAL: A MASTERCLASS IN DOMINANCE
The “Queen of the Green Clay” has officially retained her crown. In a dominant display of precision and power, world No. 5 Jessica Pegula defeated rising star Yuliia Starodubtseva 6-2, 6-2 to win the 2026 Credit One Charleston Open on Sunday, routing Ukraine’s Yuliia Starodubtseva in straight sets to claim her second title of the year.
Pegula’s victory marks a historic milestone: she is the first player to successfully defend the Charleston title in 13 years, following in the footsteps of the legendary Serena Williams (2012–2013).
While Pegula described her journey to the final as having “nine lives” – surviving four consecutive three-set marathons earlier in the week – Sunday’s final was a completely different story.
From the opening serve, the American top seed took control of the baseline. She rattled off five consecutive games in the first set, leaving Starodubtseva struggling to find an answer for Pegula’s flat, deep groundstrokes.
“Thank you to the fans who’ve supported me throughout this whole week,” Pegula said during the trophy presentation. “There were many three-set matches. It’s been such a long week for me, and you guys brought me through so many matches every single day. So thank you so much. I love playing here.”
With 500 ranking points and a $354,345 winner’s check in hand, Jessica Pegula now heads into the European clay-court season with massive momentum. All eyes will be on her as the tour moves toward Madrid and Rome, where she looks to translate this green clay success onto the red dirt of Roland Garros.
At our IA Tennis Academy, we teach our students the same baseline consistency that helped Jessica Pegula dominate the 2026 Charleston tournament.
Despite the loss, 2026 will be remembered as the breakout year for Yuliia Starodubtseva. Entering the tournament as a replacement for Amanda Anisimova, the Ukrainian underdog stunned the field by defeating seeds like Ekaterina Alexandrova and Madison Keys to reach her first WTA 500 final. Her grit was on full display in the final game of the match, where she saved three match points before Pegula finally closed it out on serve.