Donna Vekic used a return to Charleston to arrest a slide in form and to reset ahead of the clay season. After an apparel switch to Ellesse and the tour’s marketing photoshoot at Indian Wells, the former Wimbledon semifinalist edged Ajla Tomljanovic, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, in a match that stretched the Croat’s patience and resolve.

The victory followed a mixed start to 2026 that has seen Vekic slip from a career-high of No. 17 to No. 79 at the end of last year and fall out of the Top 100 for the first time since 2022. She defended her level while diagnosing the fine margins where matches have turned away from her.

“I’ve definitely had a good level of tennis from the beginning of the year,” Vekic said. “I lost the first round to Alex [Eala] in Auckland and then I lost to Mirra [Andreeva] in Australia. Those two were really tough matches but I played really well. I made the finals [at a WTA 125k] in Manila, too, so I’m playing really good tennis. I just need to believe in myself a bit more in these tough situations in matches.”

Her approach has been pragmatic. After missing the Miami Open main draw she stayed in North America, working in a Boca Raton practice block and accepting support from former coach Pam Shriver through Yonex’s Mindset and Performance Program. Training included practice sets with Tomljanovic and off-court breaks such as horseback riding in Wellington.

“It’s always challenging, it’s always tough,” she said of her latest comeback. “I’m definitely more towards the end of my career. The way I look at it is just to give it my best. If it works out, great. If it doesn’t, I’ve had a pretty good career with a lot to be proud of.”

Vekic acknowledged the need for freer tennis and less tension in big moments. She celebrated meeting a friend in a first-round draw with a simple dinner on Daniel Island and then converted that momentum into her first green-clay win since 2015, joking about the surface: “It’s faster than the red clay, and it’s green. So, I try to imagine it’s a grass court!”

“I’m trying to play a little bit more freely. Sometimes when you want it so bad, you have the opposite effect. You get tighter, more nervous. So, I’m just trying to relax a bit. Donna Vekic

Belinda Bencic used Media Day at the Credit One Charleston Open to counter the criticism leveled at one of her stiffest rivals, Coco Gauff. The American leads their head-to-head 5-2 and five of their seven meetings have gone three sets, including their most recent match last week at the Miami Open. Gauff’s serve has drawn attention after she won Roland Garros last spring, with observers noting increased inconsistency.

Bencic addressed those observations directly when asked about Gauff by the press:

Q. You just played her in Miami, but could you talk about Coco Gauff and what makes her so tough to beat?

BELINDA BENCIC: She’s a tough opponent. We have some great matches every time we play, and it’s really admirable how she moves. You definitely feel like the court is much smaller. I like to attack, of course, and she makes it really hard. She makes you replay balls. Her serve is also very tough. I know she gets a lot of comments and this and that, but her serve is very good. It’s very fast when she puts it in. Of course, sometimes you can have some problems with the rhythm and everything, but I don’t think she should get so much negative comments because her game is very unique and a very different rhythm. She changes speed and spins and rhythm. She really can play everywhere in the court, and also she’s moving great. So, she’s obviously a very deserving No. 3 or No. 4 in the world.

A former world No. 4, Bencic has been more forthcoming with reporters since returning to action from maternity leave in 2025. She is the No. 3 seed in Charleston. Earlier in the Media Day interview she spoke frankly about physical challenges she faced during a loss to Gauff at the Hard Rock Stadium:

“I don’t think it’s a taboo topic anymore, which I love,” said Bencic. “I think other female athletes have also spoke about being done hiding this topic.

“It’s no excuse if you lose a match, but it’s something we deal with.”

Paula Badosa revealed at Media Day for the Credit One Charleston Open that a torn labrum in her right hip, not a recurring back problem, was at the root of much of her 2025 pain and inconsistency. Her withdrawal from the US Open — the second time in three years — had been widely attributed to her prior back issue.

“People don’t know,” Badosa confirmed during her Media Day interview at the Credit One Charleston Open. “A lot of people have been asking me about the back and that’s something I’m trying to figure out but it’s at least under control. It’s not that now. Last year, starting in February and especially after Wimbledon, it was my psoas touching the tendon. But then I broke my labrum. It’s all very connected, but it’s tough to compete like this.”

She traced the problem to a tendon irritation in her psoas that began in February and said the situation worsened into a full-brown labrum tear around Wimbledon last summer. Badosa declined surgery for the moment and has returned to injections to manage pain. Earlier in her career a back injury required cortisone injections and contributed to a fall outside the Top 100, yet she rebuilt her ranking and reached the 2025 Australian Open semifinals.

“I was maybe at my best level after Australia,” said Badosa, who described feeling blindsided by the injury, which began as pain in her right psoas muscle. “Then all of the sudden, I saw myself on the couch again for the second time.”

“I didn’t know if I had the strength to fight again because I know what it is to come back from an injury, from zero. It’s like a mountain sometimes, and to get back to the level I want to get is difficult. For me, it was very tough, seeing myself like that. Personally, I’ve been through difficult times and it wasn’t easy because it came all together.”

She showed signs of form with a WTA 125K semifinal in Austin this month but admitted uncertainty remains. “Some days I wake up and I’m like, ‘Wow, I have to compete today? How am I going to do it?’ There’s so many things in my brain sometimes that I’m not even thinking about the match. It’s stressful for me.”

Badosa also discussed the mental battle of injury and recovery. “I think we all have two voices in our head,” Badosa mused on Monday. “Sometimes you can control the negative a bit better, and then there’s other times or moments in your life where you cannot. I think I’m in a bit of the latter situation. For me, personally, it has been very tough the last year when I got injured. From the moment I got it, I was thinking what it took to get me in that place again and how it had escaped from my hands again.

“It hurts me, in a way. I’m not seeing my tennis where it’s supposed to be or where I’d like it to be. So, that’s a little bit the mental battle I have with myself. I’m trying to deal with it, seeing it with perspective and patience. Still, I’m very competitive and I have that side in me. It’s a tough balance to find.”

Badosa leans on a team led by childhood friend-turned-coach Pol Toledo, who helped guide the 2021 BNP Paribas Open champion out of the wilderness in 2024. She enters Charleston with a 7-8 record this season and said she will continue while her body allows. “I still love this sport too much,” smiled Badosa. “I have so much passion for this sport. I notice it every time I come to compete. I have goosebumps no matter where I play. I just love that moment. On the court, I can express myself and I enjoy it. It’s what I’ve been doing all my life and it’s my passion. I also realize how much I love this sport when I go to play with my little sister. I just enjoy the moment of grabbing a racquet and hitting some balls.

“For now, because I love it so much, if the body respects me in a way and I can handle it, I will play until one day when I really want to stop. Right now, these emotions are more powerful than the other one that wants to stop.”