Jessica Pegula claimed her second consecutive Credit One Charleston Open title on Sunday with a commanding straight-sets victory. But the tournament’s most compelling story belonged to runner-up Yuliia Starodubtseva, who earned a life-changing $218,225 payday. The 26-year-old Ukrainian can finally abandon her GoFundMe campaign and fund her professional tennis career on her own terms.
How Yuliia Starodubtseva Secured Her Tennis Future
Starodubtseva took an unconventional path to the WTA Tour. She left her hometown in Ukraine to play college tennis at Old Dominion University. After graduating in 2022, she quickly faced the harsh financial realities of professional tennis.
She accepted a job as a teaching pro at Westchester Country Club in New York to pay her bills and played in local events to fill in the gaps.
Her team eventually launched a GoFundMe campaign just to cover basic travel expenses. That kind of financial pressure usually doesn’t allow a tennis career to last long.
Instead, Starodubtseva battled through small ITF tournaments and earned her way onto the main tour. Her run in Charleston began in the qualifying draw before a timely withdrawal moved her into the main field. She capitalized by rattling off five straight wins, including a massive straight-sets upset over former champion Madison Keys.
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The runner-up finish also vaulted her to a career-high No. 53 in the world rankings. Sports Illustrated senior journalist Jon Wertheim captured the gravity of the moment perfectly on his podcast.
“She was a teaching pro at a Westchester country club,” Wertheim noted. “She was the finalist. She now has more than $200,000 that she can invest in her career. She’s close to the top 50.”
“Another college player making her marks, another Ukrainian player making her marks,” Wertheim added. “And the fact that she had a GoFundMe to try and sustain her tennis career now is closing out on the top 50 is a great story.”
While the underdog captured the crowd, Pegula operated with absolute precision. The top-seeded American survived four consecutive three-set matches just to reach the final.
She trailed by at least a 0-2 margin in the deciding set of every match leading up to Sunday. But when the championship arrived, she found another gear.
Pegula won 10 straight games to take control of the match, ultimately winning 6-2, 6-2. She handled her business with veteran composure and ended the underdog run in exactly one hour and 22 minutes.
“Pegula into Charleston with all of that prize money, that bump, and she’s just become such a reliable winner at this stage in her career,” Wertheim said. “She had a lot of tough matches. She had a less tough match in the final.”
The victory makes Pegula the first woman to win back-to-back Charleston titles since Serena Williams accomplished the feat in 2013. She took home $354,345 and solidified her standing in the WTA’s top five.
Meanwhile, the focus shifts across the Atlantic to the European clay-court swing, with the Mutua Madrid Open looming later this month. Pegula will arrive in Spain carrying a top-five seed and the momentum of a 10-match winning streak on the dirt. Starodubtseva will enter the WTA 1000 event unseeded.
