Call Me ‘Three-Set Jess’: Defending Champ Pegula Sets Starodubtseva Final
TOP SEED AGAIN GOES THE DISTANCE ON DANIEL ISLAND
Jessica Pegula is one match away from a Credit One Charleston Open repeat. Fittingly, it’s a three-set victory that got her there.
On a sunny Saturday afternoon at LTP Daniel Island, the top seed and defending champion booked a return trip to the final with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 victory over countrywoman Iva Jovic. In doing so, she pulled even with world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka for the most match wins on the year: 23.
Pegula played a tour-leading 30 three-set matches in 2025. She’s already played 11 in 2026, including four straight this week.
“I think I’m finally over it,” joked Pegula, who was appearing in her fourth straight semifinal in Charleston. “I thought when I won the first set today, I had such a great chance not to go to three. I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll get it done in two today.’”
“I would love some straight-sets victories. That would be nice. But a win’s a win. If I I’m going to win every match for the rest of my life and it’s three sets, hey, I’ll take three sets.”
Iva Jovic
It looked early on as if Pegula was going to stick to the script. But after falling behind 0-3, the three-time WTA 500 winner began to settle in on the green clay of Credit One Stadium. The fifth-ranked American brought the hour-long stanza back on serve at 2-3, then served it out at 5-4.
It was the first opening set Pegula had won all week. Reversely, it was the first set her 18-year-old opponent had surrendered across four matches.
To her credit, the fourth-seed Jovic held her ground in the second, repeatedly going toe-to-toe from the baseline with her more experienced opponent. At 5-all, she would reel off four straight games, once again leaving Pegula down a break to start the third at 0-2. But as she has done so many times before, the veteran would work her way back into the proceedings, simply refusing to go down.
“Sometimes when you get down a break, you kind of free up,” said Pegula. “When you get down a break, you focus on your serve, because there’s nothing else you can do. Then I feel like I freed up on the return a little bit.”
Pegula also defeated Jovic earlier this year, 6-4, 6-2, in the third round, en route to her fourth career WTA 1000 title in Dubai.
There was definitely a youth vs. experience vibe to the match, something the 32-year-old Pegula was more than happy to exploit.
“I feel like that against a lot of girls nowadays, unfortunately,” she said. “You always notice it when they do the little bio and they’re, like, 19, 18. And then they say yours, and you’re like, ‘Oh, maybe don’t say mine anymore!’ You just start noticing like, wow, they’re so early on in their careers. Time flies. You get all these different feelings. I definitely try to use my experience, and I think that is something that can’t necessarily be taught. That’s something that you have to go through, and I’ve definitely gone through a lot and gained so much experience and try to use it as a confidence boost, not so much as a negative thing.”
The Charleston debutante Jovic, a player Pegula would call a superstar-in-the-making, was competing in her first clay-court semifinal at the tour level. Ranked No. 150 this time last year, she has climbed to a career-best No. 16, spurred by her run to the Australian Open quarterfinals.
Yuliia Starodubtseva
If Pegula is to indeed become the first back-to-back Charleston champion since Serena Williams in 2012-13, she’ll first have to get past shock finalist Yuliia Starodubtseva of the Ukraine.
The 89th-ranked Starodubtseva, 26, upset Pegula’s “The Player’s Box” podcast partner Madison Keys with an impressive display of tennis on Saturday, 6-1, 6-4. The former Old Dominion University star was initially the No.1 seed in qualifying, but was moved into the main draw before play began when American Amanda Anisimova withdrew due to injury.
Starodubtseva, who not long ago was coaching recreational players in the suburbs of New York City, managed to subdue the former Charleston champion’s game on Saturday, continually redirecting her power. Now she’s into the first tour-level final of her career.
“We’ve been talking about it for like a year that I thrive on big stages, and I might not perform on small stages sometimes, which I’m trying to fix,” said Starodubtseva, who’s coached by Pearse Dolan. “But, hopefully, I don’t need to play so many small stages now. I feel like I belong here, and I feel comfortable playing in a big crowd and feel the noise. That kind of inspires me and gives me motivation to play.”
Madison Keys
