Top seed Jessica Pegula faced a scare in the Credit One Charleston Open quarterfinals but managed to recover after losing the first set and being down a break in the second. She defeated the defending champion Danielle Collins with a score of 1-6, 6-3, 6-0. Pegula impressively won the last nine games in a row, securing the victory in 1 hour and 44 minutes.
Pegula has now won all six of her career matches against Collins, extending a perfect record that spans over 13 years. Their rivalry began in 2012 at the Midland ITF W100 event qualifying rounds, where Pegula won their first encounter 6-1, 6-2. Throughout their matches, Collins has only managed to win two sets out of a total of 14.
This win marks Pegula`s fourth semifinal appearance in 2025 and her third consecutive semifinal in Charleston. Having previously been stopped at this stage by Belinda Bencic in 2023 and Daria Kasatkina in 2024, Pegula will now compete for her first Charleston final against either No. 3 seed Zheng Qinwen or No. 9 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Turning Point: Collins, who considered this season a `bonus` after initially planning to retire at the end of 2024, started the match dominantly. She overwhelmed Pegula in a quick 27-minute first set, hitting 12 winners compared to Pegula`s two. Collins` shots were incredibly effective, including drop shots, returns, and powerful groundstrokes. This was arguably Collins` most dominant performance against Pegula, and she carried this momentum into the second set, leading 2-0.
The fourth game of the second set proved to be crucial. Collins had three game points to extend her lead to 3-1, but she couldn`t convert any of them. Pegula seized the opportunity, breaking back with a well-executed sliced approach and volley.
Following that game, errors began to plague Collins` play, turning into a series of mistakes. After being down 2-0 in the second set, Pegula claimed 12 of the next 13 games, including nine consecutively to close out the match. Collins` unforced errors dramatically increased from just nine in the first set to 46 in the subsequent two sets, which included seven double faults.
Pegula`s Words: `She started incredibly strong, and I was completely unprepared for that level,` Pegula admitted in her on-court interview. `Luckily, I somehow managed to dig in during the second set and improve my game.`
`I`m not even sure if I got fired up. I just felt a sense of relief when she began missing some shots – it was like, thank goodness, a chance! I tried to vary my play by using slices and drop shots. Her backhand is among the best on the tour, so I thought, maybe stop hitting to her backhand so much, that could help. And smarter serving – she was returning amazingly, hitting winners off my serve, so I had to find a way to improve my serve placement.`
Jasper Hawthorne 
Dominic Ashworth