500 Charleston Open Finals

Pegula leans on humor and grit to survive three-set battles in Charleston

Pegula survived three three-setters to reach a fourth straight Charleston Open semifinal. She joked..

Published

3 months ago

April 3, 2026

Jessica Pegula entered the week defending her Credit One Charleston Open crown and emerged unbeaten in matches that tested her patience. The top seed has needed late rallies in three straight wins to advance to a fourth straight Charleston semifinal, repeatedly coming back from 0-2 down in the final set.

“It’s the only thing that keeps can me alive,” the top seed smiled after rallying to defeat Diana Shnaider on Friday. Pegula’s path to the semis included three-set victories over Yulia Putintseva, Elisabetta Cocciaretto and No. 7-seeded Diana Shnaider, and she closed the quarterfinal by winning the final six games against Shnaider to seal the win.

The unusually bumpy transition to clay has produced rare flashes of visible frustration from Pegula, directed at coaches Mark Knowles and Mark Merklein. “Sometimes I’m talking to them,” Pegula admitted in her post-match press conference. “It’s hard to hear sometimes with the crowd, sometimes I’m kind of just saying things that they probably don’t hear, but then I’m talking to myself at the same time.

“I was a little frustrated at the end of the first set. Like my coach kind of told me, like, ‘Your attitude hasn’t been great,’ and I got kind of annoyed, and I was like, ‘Well, what do you expect it to be? Like I’ve been competing pretty well this week.’ And then I start rambling on to myself, like, ‘Are you fricking kidding me? Like, seriously? I think it’s been fine.’ Like it was kind of not great obviously once I lost the first set. Yeah, it’s hard.

“I feel like, for me, someone who doesn’t show a ton of emotion, there are times where I do feel like I have to let it out, and he claims he kind of did it on purpose. I don’t really know if that’s true, but he was like, ‘I did kind of want you to just like almost get mad at me a little bit just to, like, stop over-thinking all the other things that were happening in the match.’”

Pegula will face either Iva Jovic or Anna Kalinskaya in the semifinal. “She’s been playing great tennis,” Pegula said of Jovic. “Super tough competitor, very focused. Works really hard, doesn’t have like a ton of holes in her game. I feel like it’s an overall really solid player and I think has been playing at a really high level this whole year. And, yeah, it’ll be tricky playing her on clay. It’s always different than playing her on a pretty fast hard court in Dubai. So, we’ll see how that kind of varies.”

The world No. 5 has now reached at least the quarterfinals in 10 straight tournaments dating back to last year’s US Open. Pegula remained pragmatic about the clay swing and optimistic that the work in Charleston will pay off in Europe. “I do think that this week is something that I can really build off of,” she told me on Friday. “There’s a lot of things that I feel like I can get better at that I’m not doing that well right now, that I feel have a lot to do with the surface change, just my footing, my footwork, like decision making, just, you know, a lot of different things. I feel like it does kind of act as a baseline for like, ‘Okay, what can we build off this week?’ No matter what happens, whether I won or lost today or yesterday or tomorrow, it’s going to be the same.

I mean, my coach, we have this thing where we say it’s just practice anyway. And so, we kind of just say everything is practice, even though it’s not. But it is kind of true. I mean, today I was thinking of what I need to do better from yesterday, like what are things I need to work on the clay. Jessica Pegula

500 Internationaux de Strasbourg

Emma Navarro reclaims form with Strasbourg WTA 500 title

Emma Navarro ended a 15-month title drought in Strasbourg, beating Victoria Mboko in three sets. now

Published

2 months ago

May 24, 2026

IN Tennis Times

Emma Navarro ended a 15-month title drought with a determined performance to win the WTA 500 clay event in Strasbourg on Saturday. She defeated Victoria Mboko in three sets, 6-0, 5-7, 6-2, securing her first victory over a Top 10 opponent this season and the equal-biggest title of her career.

Navarro entered the week having slipped to No. 39, her lowest ranking since 2023, after falling out of the Top 20 in March and missing Miami, Charleston and Madrid because of health struggles. The Strasbourg crown lifts her from No. 39 to No. 25, returning her to the Top 30 and providing a timely confidence boost ahead of Roland Garros.

“I want to congratulate Victoria on a great week,” she said. “You made it really tough on me today, and you would’ve beaten me 0 and 0 when I was your age, so you’re doing a lot of good stuff.

“Keep doing it.”

Navarro’s path to the title included wins over Top 20 player Iva Jovic in the second round and a hard-fought quarterfinal against Zhang Shuai. She had never beaten Zhang in three previous meetings before prevailing 2-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2. Zhang not only won the first set but served for it twice in the second set, at 5-4 and 6-5, and was two points away in the tie-break.

This triumph is Navarro’s first title since last March, when she won another WTA 500 event on hard courts in Merida, Mexico. After the final she thanked her support group for staying the course through a difficult stretch.

“They’ve been with me through thick and thin. It’s been a little bit of a rocky year and a half or so, but I think we’ve put in a lot of really good work, and thank you guys for sticking by me and being incredibly dedicated. You make it fun and worth it. Every day’s a journey and we’re always getting a little bit better.”

The Strasbourg victory restores momentum for the former world No. 8 and gives her clear momentum as the clay season continues.

500 Internationaux de Strasbourg

Victoria Mboko and Wim Fissette Begin Trial Partnership, Practice Footage Surfaces

Victoria Mboko training with Wim Fissette on a trial basis was confirmed by practice footage. online

Published

2 months ago

May 19, 2026

IN Tennis Times

Ben Rothenberg of Bounces reported the news earlier this week, which was confirmed by the eye test in Strasbourg.

Videos circulated of Victoria Mboko practising under Wim Fissette’s supervision at the Internationaux de Strasbourg, signalling a new working arrangement between the rising Canadian and one of the sport’s most experienced coaches. The collaboration is described as a trial, with Fissette himself confirming the start of work with Mboko.

The timing follows an uneven clay-court campaign for Mboko. After back-to-back quarterfinal appearances in Indian Wells and Miami, she withdrew from Canada’s Billie Jean King Cup tie in mid-April due to getting her wisdom teeth removed. She then lost her opening match at the Mutua Madrid Open to Caty McNally and withdrew from the Internazionali BNL d’Italia with gastrointestinal illness. Prior to Roland Garros, Mboko played only one match across Madrid and Rome before accepting a late wild card into the WTA 500 event in Strasbourg.

For Fissette, the trial with Mboko arrives after the end of his two-year partnership with Iga Swiatek following the Sunshine Double. He has been a coach to many leading WTA players over the last 15 years and his résumé includes Grand Slam champions and other high-profile charges.

“Wim Fissette, coach of many of the best WTA players of the last 15 years, confirmed to me that he’s begun working with rising Canadian Victoria Mboko on a trial basis.”

The arrangement is modest in its initial form: training sessions and practice-court work observed by onlookers and captured on video. Whether the trial develops into a longer-term partnership will depend on results and mutual fit in the weeks ahead during the clay-court swing and at Roland Garros.

1000 500 Grand Slam

Zeynep Sonmez rises to No.59 to set new Turkish WTA ranking record

Zeynep Sonmez climbs to No.59, the highest WTA ranking in Turkish history, after Rome second round..

Published

2 months ago

May 18, 2026

IN Tennis Times

Zeynep Sonmez has moved to a new career-high and become the highest-ranked Turkish player in WTA history after a rise to No. 59 this week. The 24-year-old climbed from No. 65 following a second-round showing at the WTA 1000 event in Rome, eclipsing Cagla Buyukakcay’s previous national high of No. 60 from 2016.

Buyukakcay and Sonmez remain the only two Turkish players to crack the Top 100 in WTA rankings. They are also the only two Turkish players to have won WTA titles: Buyukakcay captured the clay-court trophy in Istanbul in 2016, and Sonmez won the hard-court event in Merida, Mexico in 2024.

Sonmez has a direct personal link to that earlier milestone. She was a ballgirl during Buyukakcay’s run to the Istanbul title a decade ago, and told the WTA it was an inspiration. “It was very emotional for me,” she said. “Everyone in Turkish tennis was there. Of course, it was a good inspiration for me and for all Turkish players.”

Her rise to No. 59 follows a breakthrough season on the biggest stages. Last summer at Wimbledon she became the first Turkish player in the Open Era, woman or man, to reach the third round of a Grand Slam. She repeated that third-round appearance at the Australian Open this year.

Sonmez has also established consistent form on tour, advancing at least one round in her last six events, all at WTA 500 level or higher. Highlights of that run include a WTA 500 quarterfinal in Merida and a third-round showing at the WTA 1000 in Madrid. She also recorded the first Top 10 victory of her career against Jasmine Paolini in Stuttgart.