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."
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."
Wild card entrant Alexandra Eala of the Philippines continued her epic 2025 Miami Open run on Wednesday, as the world No. 140 took down No. 2 Iga Świątek in a 6-2, 7-5 straight-set stunner.
Without massive power as part of her game, the 19-year-old leaned hard on her fast feet and intelligent shot-making, earning 43 of her 77 points from serve returns.
"My coach told me to run, to go for every ball, to take all the opportunities I can because a five-time [Grand] Slam champion is not going to give you the win," said Eala.
At the same time that Eala was disrupting Świątek's rhythm, the tournament's defending champion struggled with her serve and ultimately committed 32 unforced errors in the loss.
"She was really aggressive and she kept her focus, and some of these shots were pretty out of nowhere," commented Świątek after the match, as she joined a growing list of big-name departures from the Florida competition.
Eala emblazons her name into Filipina sports history
As one of the sport's top junior prospects, Eala won the girls' doubles title at both the 2020 Australian Open and 2021 French Open, before taking the girls' singles championship at the 2022 US Open.
Even so, "being a successful junior doesn’t mean you are going to be a successful professional," Eala acknowledged.
Her dramatic Miami Open run begs to differ, as Eala dismissed two other Grand Slam winners from the tournament en route to her Wednesday’s quarterfinal date with Świątek.
First, she sent Latvia's No. 25 Jeļena Ostapenko — the 2017 French Open winner packing in Friday's Round of 64, then dispatched 2025 Australian Open champ No. 5 Madison Keys in Sunday's Round of 32 — both in just two sets.
Her trio of Miami Open wins over Top 30 players now counts as the total tally for her entire country, with Eala also becoming the first-ever Filipina to advance to a WTA semifinal.
With the WTA's next rankings updates, she will also become the first player from the Philippines to crack into the Top 100 — a mark Eala will launch past as her victory over Świątek already guarantees her at least a No. 75 ranking.
"I'm just in disbelief right now," Eala said in her on-court interview. "I'm so happy, and so blessed to be able to compete with such a player on this stage."
How to watch Alexandra Eala in the 2025 Miami Open semifinals
The Filipina teen's next hurdle in her historic run is US star No. 4 Jessica Pegula, who she'll face at 8:30 PM ET on Thursday, with a Saturday championship date against world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka guaranteed for the victor.
Thursday's semifinal between Eala and Pegula will air live on The Tennis Channel.
After early exits from the 2025 BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, US standouts continued to struggle this week, failing to advance past the Round of 16 at the Miami Open.
After ending the dream of a single Sunshine Double winner by outlasting Indian Wells champion No. 6 Mirra Andreeva in Sunday's three-set Round of 32 battle, US contender No. 17 Amanda Anisimova fell to the UK's unseeded Emma Raducanu in straight sets on Monday.
The Round of 16 action also saw world No. 1-ranked Aryna Sabalenka knock out US stalwart No. 14-seed Danielle Collins in two sets — a fate similarly suffered by No. 3-ranked Coco Gauff, who fell to Poland's unseeded Magda Linette by the exact same 6-4, 6-4 scoreline.
"It wasn’t great today," Gauff told reporters after the match. "It hasn’t been the last few weeks — I’m trying to figure that out. Definitely not happy about it."
The 21-year-old star is in the midst of a particularly frustrating 2025 run, having yet to advance past the quarterfinals of any competition since winning the 2024 WTA Finals.
"It's just a series of not having great results and feeling confident on the court," she said of her current struggles.
The lone US player still on Miami's court is world No. 4 Jessica Pegula, who easily ousted Ukraine's No. 23-seed Marta Kostyuk 6-2, 6-3 on Monday.
Unseeded players shine at 2025 Miami Open
Though five of the WTA's Top 9 players — from Sabalenka to her next opponent, China's No. 9 Qinwen Zheng — advanced to this week's Miami Open quarterfinals, a trio of unseeded athletes are also making deep runs in Florida.
The aforementioned Raducanu is displaying the same tenacity that helped her win the 2021 US Open at just 18 years old, dispatching a trio of US players in No. 8-seed Emma Navarro, unseeded McCartney Kessler, and Anisimova to claim a Wednesday quarterfinal date with US star Pegula.
Also causing chaos in Miami is unseeded 19-year-old Filipino pro Alexandra Eala, who rolled over 2025 Australian Open champion and world No. 5 Madison Keys on Sunday, ultimately earning a shot at No. 2 Iga Świątek on Wednesday.
But first, Gauff's unseeded conquerer Linette will kick off the tournament's quarterfinals by facing No. 6-seed Jasmine Paolini.
The Italian star already ushered Japan icon Naomi Osaka out of the competition in Monday's three-set Round of 16 battle, and will take aim at Linette's similarly impressive unseeded run on Tuesday.
How to watch the 2025 Miami Open quarterfinals
The 2025 Miami Open quarterfinals will kick off on Tuesday, when Magda Linette will face No. 6 Jasmine Paolini at 3:20 PM ET, before No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka takes on No. 9 Qinwen Zheng at 7 PM ET.
The remaining two quarterfinals will take Wednesday's court, with the timing for Emma Raducanu vs. No. 4 Jessica Pegula and Alexandra Eala vs. No. 2 Iga Świątek yet to be determined.
All 2025 Miami Open matches will be covered live on the Tennis Channel.
Teen tennis star Mirra Andreeva is on a roll, upsetting world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in Sunday's final of the 2025 BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells and launching five spots to No. 6 in the WTA rankings as a result.
Sabalenka entered Sunday's match having not dropped a single set all tournament, then started the final strong with a 6-2 first-set victory.
The three-time Grand Slam winner's advantage didn't last past the first break, however, as Sabalenka's 17-year-old opponent came back roaring back to finish off the match 6-4, 6-3.
"In the second set, I tried to play a little bit more aggressive," Andreeva said after the match. "I didn’t try to overhit her, because I don’t think anyone can overhit Aryna, because she’s super powerful player."
"I tried to really create something to make her uncomfortable, and point by point, game by game, I managed to do that."
WTA Tour-leading Andreeva still hunting first Slam title
With Sunday's win, Andreeva became the youngest Indian Wells champion since then-17-year-old Serena Williams defeated Steffi Graf to win the tournament in 1999.
Even more, Andreeva did so in dominant fashion, ousting top players like No. 22 Elina Svitolina, No. 8 Elena Rybakina, and even the contest's defending champion, No. 2 Iga Świątek, to advance to the championship match.
By defeating both Sabalenka and five-time major champion Świątek, Andreeva added her name next to Williams' in another line of the tennis history book, becoming the first player under 18-years-old to defeat the world Nos. 1 and 2 at the same WTA tournament since the US legend did so at the 1999 US Open.
Perhaps most impressively, Andreeva now sits atop all other players on tour with a 19-3 record on the season, after adding Sunday's Indian Wells trophy to last month's 2025 Dubai Championships title.
That said, Andreeva's current hot streak isn't just a warning to her opponents on tour — it's a signal that the teen could be on the precipice of lifting her first-ever Grand Slam trophy, as her chances of reaching the sport's apex skyrocket with every top-ranked victory.
With Sunday's final match looming, the competition is heating up at the 2025 BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells — though several top US players are no longer feeling the fire after falling short in the Round of 16.
Unseeded 28-year-old Swiss contender Belinda Bencic claimed arguably the tournament's biggest upset thus far, with the wild card ousting world No. 3 Coco Gauff on Wednesday.
Despite Gauff taking the first set, 2020 Olympic champion Bencic prevailed, fighting through multiple medical timeouts to snag the win.
Fellow US standout No. 4 Jessica Pegula suffered a similar fate, losing to Ukraine’s No. 23 Elina Svitolina in a three-set match heavily impacted by three hours of rain delays on Tuesday.
With the 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 come-from-behind win, Svitolina advances to her first Indian Wells quarterfinals in six years.
World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and defending Indian Wells champion No. 2 Iga Świątek continued their dominance through the Round of 16, with each booking their quarterfinals berth without dropping a single set at the tournament.
Bencic to face last-standing US player Madison Keys
Another US star stands between Bencic and Friday's semifinals, as 2025 Australian Open champ and freshly minted world No. 5 Madison Keys continues her winning form in California.
The endurance and tenacity that earned Keys her first-ever Grand Slam title is on display at Indian Wells, where she outlasted Belgium's No. 28 Elise Mertens after three back-and-forth sets on Monday before surviving a difficult battle against Croatia's No. 19-seed Donna Vekić in Wednesday’s Round of 16.
By winning the 4-6, 7-6 (7), 6-3 clash, Keys is now riding a 15-match victory streak into Thursday's quarterfinal.
"I kind of just started deciding I was going to go for a little bit more," she said afterwards. "Really happy to be able to get that match and get that win and play another match here."
How to watch Thursday's 2025 Indian Wells quarterfinals
Thursday's quarterfinal round kicks off with Świątek taking on China's 2024 Olympic champion No. 8-seed Qinwen Zheng in a gold-medal rematch at 2 PM ET.
Svitolina will take on No. 9-seed Mirra Andreeva at 4 PM ET, with Keys set to contend with Bencic at 5:10 PM ET.
Sabalenka will close out the round at 8 PM ET, when she'll face her first seeded opponent all tournament in No. 24-seed Liudmila Samsonova.
Live coverage of all matches will air on the Tennis Channel.
Top-ranked players cruised through the competition at the 2025 BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells over the weekend, with few early-round upsets leaving the sport’s best firmly intact as the Round of 32 enters its second day.
Defending champion and world No. 2 Iga Świątek has put together the tournament's most dominant performance so far, with the Polish phenom dropping just four total games in her first two victories over France's Caroline Garcia and Ukraine's Dayana Yastremska.
On the other hand, several lower seeded players suffered early round losses.
Yastremska opened her Indian Wells account by ousting Tunisian star and world No. 32 Ons Jabeur 6-3, 6-1 in Friday's first round.
Meanwhile, Saturday saw Canada's No. 27 Leylah Annie Fernandez and the US's No. 18 Amanda Anisimova fall in three-set first-round battles with Romania's Jaqueline Cristian and Switzerland's Belinda Bencic, respectively.
Sunday's play went mostly according to seeding, with the lone second-round upset win going to Ukrainian Elina Svitolina. The world No. 23 player sent the US's No. 14 Danielle Collins packing with a 6-2, 6-4 defeat.
Top 5 players look to roll to the Round of 16
While Świątek and US standout No. 4 Jessica Pegula booked their Round of 16 spots on Sunday, world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka as well as US stars No. 3 Coco Gauff and No. 5 Madison Keys will take the court for their second-round matchups on Monday afternoon.
Keys faces perhaps the toughest path to the trophy.
If the 2025 Australian Open champion clears Belgium's No. 28 Elise Mertens on Monday, she could face Gauff in an all-US quarterfinal on Wednesday.
Then, a potential date with 2024 US Open winner Sabalenka — who Keys defeated to secure her first-ever Grand Slam win — awaits in the tournament's penultimate round.
How to watch the 2025 BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells
The conclusion of the tournament's second round is currently underway, with live coverage airing on the Tennis Channel.
The WTA announced sweeping new parental protections on Thursday, with over 300 players becoming eligible to receive paid parental leave for the first time in the pro tennis organization’s history.
Despite their year-round schedule, WTA players are technically independent contractors, a status that previously limited their access to benefits.
Players can now apply for up to 12 months of leave for carrying a child, while athletes who become parents through surrogacy, adoption, or partner pregnancy are eligible for a two-month leave.
The program also allots grants to support fertility treatments, including egg freezing and IVF.
All athletes who have competed in at least eight WTA tournaments, including four at a minimum 250 level, over the last 12 months are eligible to receive benefits. As an alternative, players contesting at least 24 WTA events over the last 36 months, including 12 at the 250 level, will also be eligible.
Under those requirements, the WTA calculates that 320 current athletes now qualify for paid parental leave.
Details surrounding the benefit amount were not disclosed. But the program will be retroactive to January 1st.
"We’ve seen players making decisions about maybe ending their careers a little sooner than they would have liked because they want to explore family life, or coming back onto the tour and competing maybe sooner than they’re ready," WTA CEO Portia Archer told reporters at the BNP Paribas Open on Monday. "And so we think that this will minimize some of that stress and make those kinds of decisions easier."
"That can be transformational for some players, particularly those earning less than the top players in the world, where these kinds of benefits and support may be more impactful. So we really do hope that it changes lives."
WTA parental leave program sponsored by Saudi Arabia
The new WTA program offering parental protections is being backed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of 2024 WTA Finals host Saudi Arabia. The WTA entered into a multi-year partnership with the kingdom last May.
While the country’s recent investments in women’s sports grab headlines, many identify the moves as "sportswashing," or using sports investments to draw public attention away from other unethical practices.
Numerous prominent athletes have criticized Saudi Arabia's human rights record, particularly when it comes to practices involving women as well as the LGBTQIA+ community.
Practices such as a law requiring women to have permission from a male relative in order to marry have the country ranked 126th out of 146 nations in the 2024 Global Gender Gap Report.
When pressed on the issue, Archer simply said, "Questions about Saudi society are really not questions for me or the WTA. They’re questions for the Saudis to answer."
Former world No. 1 tennis star Naomi Osaka hit another setback on Wednesday, falling in straight sets in the first round of the 2025 BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells to Colombia’s unseeded Camila Osorio.
Osaka earned her first-ever WTA title at Indian Wells, defeating Daria Kasatkina to become the event's 2018 champion.
Wednesday's 6-4, 6-4 loss marked the now-No. 56 Osaka's first return to the court since an abdominal injury forced an early end to her impressive 2025 Australian Open run.
"It feels like a bump in the road," said the four-time Grand Slam champion after the match. "I don’t feel like I played well at all, but I still feel like I had so many chances to be in the match."
The match was Osorio's Indian Wells debut, with the No. 53 player now standing as the only Colombian woman to ever defeat a former world No. 1 player.
"It's a dream come true," said Osorio. "I really wanted to play on this court and was really excited and looking forward to playing a champion like Naomi, so I can't believe it."
WTA stars aim for title, rankings boosts at Indian Wells
Indian Wells serves as the opener for the Sunshine Double, a pair of early-season high-profile WTA 1000 events that sees the world’s top players hitting the US hardcourt. The annual tournament duo includes this week's event in California and, later this month, Florida's Miami Open.
Positioned in the tennis calendar's longest break between Grand Slams, the Sunshine Double often gives players a competitive opportunity to build up their rankings by accruing points in the lead-up to May's French Open.
To that end, the world's top contenders will all enter the Indian Wells fray on Friday, including No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and the tournament's defending champion, No. 2 Iga Świątek.
The event's convenient West Coast locale also attracts a wealth of US entrants, with No. 3 Coco Gauff, No. 4 Jessica Pegula, and 2025 Australian Open champion No. 5 Madison Keys joining fellow Stateside competitors No. 8 Emma Navarro, No. 14 Danielle Collins, and No. 18 Amanda Anisimova on this week's Indian Wells court.
How to watch the 2025 BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells tennis tournament
The 2025 BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells will be contested through March 16th, with all seeded competitors beginning their tournament runs in Friday's Round of 64.
Live coverage of the tournament will air across the Tennis Channel's platforms.
Newly minted Australian Open champion Madison Keys added the highest WTA rankings of her career to her resume on Monday, rising to No. 5 despite withdrawing from last week’s Dubai Open with a leg injury.
The first-time Grand Slam winner joins fellow US standouts No. 3 Coco Gauff and No. 4 Jessica Pegula in the Top 5 WTA rankings, marking the first time three US women have featured in that elite echelon since Serena Williams, Lindsay Davenport, and Jennifer Capriati did so in 2003.
While Emma Navarro slid in at No. 10 to give the US four of the Top 10 WTA rankings, a breakthrough title-winning run at the 2025 Dubai Open launched Mirra Andreeva into the upper tier. The 17-year-old jumped five spots to claim No. 9 and become the youngest Top 10-ranked WTA player since 2007.
The sport's top two players held steady in Monday's shakeup, with No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 2 Iga Świątek keeping their ground.
That said, with the WTA Tour returning Stateside next week, expect more rankings movement — and perhaps a few surprise entries — as players continue to prep for the three Grand Slams remaining in the 2025 season.
Former WTA No. 1 Venus Williams will not play at Indian Wells
Contrary to last week’s widespread reports, tennis legend Venus Williams — who first rose to No. 1 in the WTA rankings 23 years ago this week — said she will not be participating in next month's 2025 BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.
"I love Indian Wells, I would love to be there," the 44-year-old US icon told the crowd during a public appearance in Denmark on Monday. "If I could have accepted it, I would have loved to be there, but I already made commitments."
"We wish Venus all the best and hope to see her back in Indian Wells in the future," said tournament director Tommy Haas in response, reversing the Open’s earlier social media announcement of Williams' wild card berth.
On Wednesday, US tennis icon Venus Williams was awarded a wild card spot to play in next month’s BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, with the 44-year-old signing onto participate in her first WTA competition in a almost a year.
Williams has not featured in a tour event since the 2024 Miami Open, exiting that tournament in her March 19th opening match after dropping two straight sets to Diana Shnaider.
Venus Williams continues her storied tennis career
Often stating her desire to play professional tennis for as long as she can, the seven-time Grand Slam singles champion has never officially announced her retirement.
"Serena ruined it for me," Williams joked during an October 2024 TV interview, referencing her sister’s 2022 retirement. "Because as soon as she retired, everybody thought I retired."
Williams, who turned pro over 30 years ago, boasts a resume with 49 singles trophies and five Olympic medals. Her combined 21 Grand Slam titles includes five Wimbledon singles championships, two US Open singles trophies, and 14 doubles titles alongside her younger sister.
While she has more major singles titles than any other active woman on tour, Williams hasn't added to her tally since winning the Taiwan Open in February 2016.
Having drastically decreased her competition schedule over the last few seasons, Williams has competed in just nine events over the past two years.
"At this point, it’s about picking and choosing places I want to be," she said.
A roller coaster history with Indian Wells
Given her stated intention to specifically choose her competition appearances, it's somewhat interesting that Williams set her sights on the Indian Wells tournament.
While she first competed at the event in 1994, both Williams and her sister boycotted the tournament for 14 years following Serena's experience during the 2001 final. Though she ultimately won the title, then-19-year-old Serena experienced booing and racist abuse during the match — an ordeal the younger Williams sister called "very traumatizing."
Serena ultimately returned to the competition in 2015, with Venus doing the same in 2016.
With 10 Indian Wells appearances on her resume, including three trips to the competition's semifinals, this year's tournament marks the second-straight year that Williams will play as a wild card entry. At the 2024 edition, she fell 6-2, 3-6, 0-6 to Nao Hibino in the first round.
How to watch the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells tennis tournament
The 2025 BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells runs from March 2nd through 16th.
With her wild card berth, Williams will begin play when the main draw starts on March 5th.
Live coverage of the tournament will air across the Tennis Channel's platforms.