US Open<\/a> runner-up won her matches against Yuliia Putintseva, Elisabetta Cocciaretto, Diana Shnaider, and Iva Jovic in the deciding set. By contrast, Starodubtseva only dropped one set in triumphs over Shuai Zhang, Ekaterine Gorgodze, Renata Zarazua, McCartney Kessler, and Madison Keys.<\/p>\nStarodubtseva\u2019s semifinal victory against Keys was a standout performance. The Ukrainian consistently had the 2025 Australian Open winner on the back foot and was not intimidated by her power. Pegula will present a different challenge. Although a clean hitter, the defending champion does not strike the ball as hard as Keys, but excels more with her athleticism and return. That means Starodubtseva will undoubtedly have to work harder to win points.<\/p>\n
Despite Starodubtseva\u2019s terrific level in the previous rounds, Pegula is backed to prevail. The pressure of competing in a maiden WTA final often leads to a drop in performance. That risk is heightened for the world No. 89 because of the Charleston Open being prestigious and facing a top player. Pegula\u2019s ability to raise her game when it matters most was shown when she beat Sofia Kenin in last year\u2019s final. The home favorite had won her previous two matches in a deciding set before that moment.<\/p>\n
The first set will likely be crucial to Starodubtseva\u2019s chances. Pegula has shown she can stay calm after a slow start, while the Ukrainian might panic from that position in her first final.
Prediction: Pegula in 2<\/p>\n
Nain Photo Credit: Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It should be a terrific WTA Charleston final. Jessica Pegula has a chance to win back-to-back titles at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[23004,143156,99,428,9985,9986,246152,126703,126704],"class_list":{"0":"post-565875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-jessica-pegula","9":"tag-jessica-pegula-predictions","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-tennis-picks","13":"tag-tennis-predictions","14":"tag-wta-charleston-predictions","15":"tag-yuliia-starodubtseva","16":"tag-yuliia-starodubtseva-predictions"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}