“After watching her this week in Charleston, I’m convinced Jessica Pegula has magical powers,” Chris Evert tweeted after the defending champion rallied once more to reach the Credit One Charleston Open final.

The defending champion again leaned on late-match resolve, claiming a 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 victory over Iva Jovic to advance. It was the fourth match this week in which Pegula trailed 0-2 in the final set before reversing course and advancing.

“I guess my super power for this week is, I don’t know, maybe my stamina, my mental fortitude,” Pegula said, giving a more academic assessment of Evert’s tweet. “I don’t know what it is, but, yeah, I guess that’s a big compliment coming from Chrissie.

“So, I think, yeah, maybe also like cat with nine lives. I’ve heard that a few times, too. I do feel a bit more like that than a super power, to be honest. Maybe just a little lucky.”

Pegula has been remarkably consistent since last summer, reaching at least the quarterfinals of every tournament she has entered since the 2025 US Open. She also captured a title earlier this season at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and now will face Yuliia Starodubtseva in the Charleston final. Starodubtseva, 26, advanced after upsetting Madison Keys to reach the biggest final of her career.

“She played pretty lights out today, it seems like,” Pegula said in her post-match press conference. “I’m kind of taking a mental couple hours before I have to tap into kind of maybe watching some of her matches and see what she’s done really well and what she’s been doing here too.”

Pegula also discussed gains to her serve over the past year and how those improvements have come.

“It wasn’t really like super intention as far as like I wasn’t necessarily working on it,” Pegula clarified. “I’m always working a little bit on placement and getting my serve bigger, but it kind of just happened naturally with all the stuff that we’ve been working on. I haven’t really changed much, to be honest, as far as using my legs or my motion. It’s really more just, I think, using my hand. And I have a pretty live arm. And so I’ve always thought my serve could be much bigger for my size, because with my arm being pretty live for all tall I am.

“So, I’ve always kind of been like, ‘Why isn’t my serve bigger?’ So, we’ve had to figure out certain ways to kind of tap into that. And, yeah, I don’t know. It’s worked, I guess.”

As she closes in on a second straight Charleston crown, Pegula emphasized experience as a resource.

“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.”

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.”

Two years after her first WTA singles title in Rabat, Peyton Stearns collected a second trophy much closer to home by winning the ATX Open. The former University of Texas standout had lost in the first round of her adopted home event in each of the last two years, but completed a goal she has pursued since the WTA 250 was added to the calendar in 2023.

In 2023 she won her first WTA main-draw match in Austin and reached the quarterfinals as a wild card less than a year after lifting the NCAA Division I national singles trophy. This week she snapped a three-match skid at the tournament by coming from a set down to beat Brit Francesca Jones in round one.

After that match Stearns admitted that she thought “it would be nice for a Longhorn to win this tournament, finally.

“So hopefully I’m the first,” she said.

Stearns won three of her five matches in three sets. In the final she saved a trio of set points in the opening set before closing out a 7-6(8), 7-5 victory over Taylor Townsend. Townsend was contesting her first tour-level singles final at the age of 29.

Townsend had earlier erased a 4-0 first-set deficit in the semifinals against Ashlyn Krueger. In the title match Townsend held two set points on return at 5-3, and after Stearns rallied to force a tiebreaker the left-hander left her third chance on the table at 8-7 after erasing Stearns’ 6-3 lead.

Stearns also survived tight early tests during the week, including saving match point in the first round against Linda Fruhvirtova as she accumulated wins despite not having advanced past a tour-level quarterfinal before this week. The final was the second straight all-American title match in Austin, following Jessica Pegula’s win over McCartney Kessler for the 2025 crown. Both home contenders will see meaningful ranking gains ahead of the Sunshine Double.