US tennis star Jessica Pegula defeated Sofia Kenin 6-3, 7-5 at the Charleston Open on Sunday, winning her first clay court title in the tournament’s first all-US final since 1990.

The victory marks Pegula’s second of the season, with the 2025 Miami Open finalist overtaking fellow US star Coco Gauff in the No. 3 spot in the newly updated WTA rankings — matching her career high.

"I was playing a lot of matches over the previous couple years, and I was just burnt out," Pegula told reporters afterwards. "So I'm just really happy that this year I feel so much fresher, so much better, and I think the results are kind of showing this early in the year."

2025 Charleston Open champion Jessica Pegula kisses her glass trophy.
Next year's Charleston Open champion will enjoy equal winnings to the men for the first time. (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

Equal pay heads for Charleston Open

Charleston organizers also announced on Sunday that the Open will provide equal prize money to both the men’s and women’s pools starting with next year's edition, becoming the first standalone WTA 500 event to level the financial playing field — and doubling the winner’s approximately $1,000,000 purse in the process.

The move follows a 2023 WTA announcement outlining a pathway to equal pay, with the goal of achieving purse equity across combined WTA 1000 and 500 events by 2027 and single-week WTA 1000 and 500 events by 2033.

"People often assume there's equal prize money across the board, but it's really only at the Slams, and maybe one or two of the 1000-level tournaments," Pegula explained. "So just starting that trend toward better equity is huge for us. It's amazing."

Madison Keys’ strong start to the new year continued at the Australian Open on Monday, with the American upsetting 2020 champion Sofia Kenin 7-6(2), 7-5 in the first round.

Keys recorded 31 winners, including 15 aces, to take down No. 11 seed. The victory was the 43rd of Keys’ WTA career and her sixth straight.

Keys, the former world No. 7, was coming off of a win Saturday at the Adelaide International tournament for her first WTA title since 2019. She now holds a 3-1 head-to-head advantage over Kenin.

Kenin, the 23-year-old American, was the third top seed to fall Monday after Coco Gauff dropped her first-round match and Ons Jabeur withdrew from hers due to injury.

Keys, 26, will take on Jaqueline Cristian of Romania in the second round. Cristian defeated Greet Minnen 7-5, 6-4 on Monday.