WTA500 Charleston: Jessica Pegula vs Sofia Kenin final analysis
Steady Jessie in set 1, comeback Jessie in set 2
In the first all-American final at the Credit One Charleston Open since a historic 1990 edition***, top seed Jessica Pegula (WTA #4) defeated Sofia Kenin (WTA #44) 6-3, 7-5 to win her first title on clay.
Pegula, playing what is probably her best-ever tennis, has now won 17 of her last 19 matches, claimed 2 titles and reached 3 finals in her last 4 tournaments. A superb sequence that, combined with her strong 15-2 record during last year’s US hardcourt swing and a few other notable results achieved over the last 12 months, has taken the 31-year old American back to #3 in the world (equalling her career-high ranking).
*** Played at Hilton Head, the 1990 Family Circle Cup marked Martina Navratilova’s 150th singles title. In the final, she triumphed over 14-year old Jennifer Capriati, who was playing in only her second career tournament.
It was 14 months ago that Pegula blindsided the tennis world when she announced the split from longtime coach David Witt, citing a desire/need to take a risk.
“I’ve just turned 30 so I feel like I’m getting to that point where I am maybe more near to the ending of my career phase so I just kind of needed to make some tough decisions to try something different.
I didn’t want to regret not doing this. I think it was just something that naturally happened.”
— Jessica Pegula, explaining split from coach David Witt
If it felt surprising, bold and unnecessarily risky at the time, it’s now looking like a magnificent decision.
Since Pegula started working with Mark Merklein and Mark Knowles, she has doubled her number of Tour titles (from 4 to 8), reached the final in 35% of events played (8 of 23) and finally got over the quarterfinal hurdle at a Major.
With no points to defend until the grass-court season, will Pegula be able to overtake Iga Swiatek at #2 during the upcoming European clay swing? Current gap stands at 1,400 points…
Match analysis
The first set of the 2025 Credit One Charleston Open final was characterized by Pegula’s steadiness, in opposition to Kenin’s struggles to control unforced errors. The unseeded finalist closed the opener with three-times more unforced errors, accumulating 18 against 6 from Pegula.
Kenin was particularly error-prone on “serve+1s”. She made 3 consecutive “serve+1” unforced errors to lose serve to love in the opening game, conceded a second break with another “serve+1” miss on break point in the 7th game and hit one last “serve+1” error at 3-5 15/30 that gifted Pegula 2 set points.
In total, Kenin piled up 10 “serve+1” errors during the opener, compared to 3 from Pegula.
Set 1 “Serve+1” Performances
Pegula: 2 winners / 3 errors = -1
Kenin: 3 winners / 10 errors = -7
→ Kenin’s “serve+1” unforced errors on big points: to lose serve at 0-0 and 3-3, and when she was 2 points away from losing the set.
📺 source: WTA Tv
After dropping just 2 of 13 1st serve points for an 85% win-rate in the first set, Pegula started the second set winning only 1 of 12 1st serve points (8%). Such remarkable turnaround had a lot to do with Kenin’s improved returning.