Pegula Captures Second Straight Charleston Open Title
American Jessica Pegula defended her Credit Open Charleston Open title on Sunday, defeating Yuliia Starodubtseva 6-2, 6-2 to become the event’s first repeat champion since Serena Williams in 2013.
“Thank you to the fans who’ve supported me throughout this whole week,” said Pegula. “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.”
The final on Sunday was a much cleaner match for Pegula than the ones she had played in the lead up to the championship. In all of her matches at the tournament, Pegula had to come through in three sets including coming back from a set down in three of them.
At 1-2 down, Pegula rattled off the next five games to claim the opening set. She continued that momentum in the second by racing out to a 5-0 to lead to extend her streak to 10 straight games won.
A few games later, Pegula sealed the deal. The title is the second of the season for her, and the 11th of her career.
“Congrats to Yuliia. Amazing tennis this week,” Pegula said. “Nothing but good luck to you and your team. And if anyone doesn’t know, she has an amazing story. So I encourage you guys to get to know her a little bit more and continue cheering her on.”
Sunday’s final was the first at the WTA Tour level for Starodubtseva, and as a result she moves to 36 spots in the rankings to No. 53 in the world.
“As I said before, she’s [Pegula] one of the players to look up to and one of the players I’ve been told to watch and learn from, and I agree with that,” said Starodubtseva. “I can still learn from Jessie, and I think she’s a great player. And credit to her. She played great, and I feel like maybe I didn’t play as well as I played the whole week.”
