Prepare for the clay season! The Hologic WTA Tour`s clay court season starts next week with the Credit One Charleston Open, a WTA 500 event held on Charleston`s famous green clay.
This is the 53rd year of the tournament. It began in 1973 on Hilton Head Island and is now the oldest professional women`s tennis tournament in the USA. It has also been named the WTA 500 Tournament of the Year for the last three years.
Main draw matches begin on Monday, March 31st. Forty-eight singles players, including half of the world`s Top 20, and 16 doubles teams will compete for over one million dollars in prize money. The singles and doubles finals are scheduled for Sunday, April 6th.
As the Road to Roland Garros begins in South Carolina, here are the important details:
Main Draw Starts: Monday, March 31
Singles Final: Sunday, April 6, starting no earlier than 2:30 PM
Doubles Final: Sunday, April 6 at 12:00 PM
Qualifying: Saturday, March 29 and Sunday, March 30
Main Draw Ceremony: Saturday, March 29 at 3:00 PM
Singles Main Draw Size: 48 players (including 6 qualifiers and 4 wild cards)
Doubles Main Draw Size: 16 teams
Tournament Ball: Dunlop Grand Prix Regular Duty
Key storylines for Charleston to follow:
- Danielle Collins returns to defend her title. Last year, she won her first WTA 500 title here, following her first WTA 1000 win in Miami the week before. This Charleston victory was part of a 15-match winning streak that propelled her back into the Top 10.
- Madison Keys, a known Charleston fan favorite, will compete as a recent Grand Slam champion and with a career-high ranking of No. 5. Keys was a finalist in 2015 and won the Charleston title in 2019.
- Jessica Pegula, currently ranked No. 4 in the world, will be the top seed. She aims to reach her first Charleston final after reaching the semifinals for the past two years. In both 2023 and 2024, her run was stopped in the semifinals.
- Emma Navarro, a local player from Charleston, will play at her home tournament as a Top 10 player. She recently broke into the Top 10 and reached multiple Grand Slam quarterfinals, including a semifinal at the US Open, within the last year. Navarro made her WTA main draw debut at Charleston in 2019.
- Besides Collins and Keys, other past Charleston champions in the draw include Daria Kasatkina (2017), Veronika Kudermetova (2021), and Belinda Bencic (2022). Bencic will be playing in her eighth tournament since returning from maternity leave. She has already won a title in Abu Dhabi and is back in the Top 50.
Charleston Ranking Points and Prize Money
First round: 1 point | $6,400
Second round: 32 points | $7,975
Round of 16: 60 points | $12,900
Quarterfinals: 108 points | $25,550
Semifinals: 195 points | $51,085
Finalist: 325 points | $101,000
Champion: 500 points | $164,000
Check back for more updates as the tournament approaches!
Jasper Hawthorne 
Dominic Ashworth