Charleston Open Begins With Plenty of Americans On Display In Lowcountry

Caroline Dolehide, Charleston Open
Caroline Dolehide (photo: Charleston Tennis LLC)

CHARLESTON, S.C./WASHINGTON, April 1, 2025 (by Michael Dickens)

As the 53rd edition of the Credit One Charleston Open unfolded Monday at Credit One Stadium on Daniel Island in the South Carolina Lowcountry, one couldn’t help but notice the American presence in this year’s field of the WTA Tour‘s annual kickoff to the spring clay season.

After all, one-third of the 48-player singles draw – 16 players – is made up of players from the United States and it’s a reflection of the abundance of red, white and blue found in the PIF WTA Rankings, in which there are five Americans in the Top 20 and 10 in the Top 50.

The American contingent in Charleston this week, largest by far of any nation at this year’s WTA 500 event on green clay, not only includes Top 20-caliber players – World No. 4 and top seed Jessica Pegula, World No. 5 and Australian Open champion Madison Keys, World No. 11 Emma Navarro and World No. 16 Amanda Anisimova – but also defending champion Danielle Collins, ranked 22nd, as well as up-and-coming Ashlyn Krueger (ranked 34th) and Peyton Stearns (ranked 43rd).

Charleston has had a history of producing American champions. Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Tracy Austin, Venus Williams and Serena Williams come to mind and, more recently, Keys and Collins.

On Monday afternoon, some of the less well-known Americans were featured in Credit One Stadium, including No. 73 Caroline Dolehide, No. 78 Katie Volynets and 230th-ranked wild card Maria Mateas.

• Dolehide captured 10 of the last 11 games of her first-round match against No. 85 Elisabetta Cocciaretto of Italy and won 6-4, 6-1 in an hour and 20 minutes on Stadium court to advance to Tuesday’s second round against Keys. In her best Charleston result in two years, Dolehide hit 22 winners and converted five of nine break-point opportunities. She outpointed Cocciaretto 67-44.

“[Elisabetta] was playing well from the beginning. We have practiced before so I knew her game a bit,” Dolehide said of Cocciaretto during her on-court interview. “She’s a great player. I expected the ball to come low. It’s a little bit shorter and on clay it’s tricky. You learn to make adjustments and that’s what I did.”

Looking ahead to her next match, against reigning Australian Open champion Keys, Dolehide said: “It’s going to be an exciting match, for sure. This is why I am here, to play against the best players in the world. We both have big games. I’m really looking forward to it.”

• Next, Volynets won impressively, 6-0, 6-0, over 332nd-ranked Canadian qualifier Katherine Sebov, in 52 minutes behind 11 winners and six breaks of her opponent’s serve. She outpointed Sebov 50-13 and will face No. 15 seed Krueger in the second round on Wednesday.

During a sit-down interview with Tennis Channel after her double-bagel triumph, Volynets was asked to describe the feeling of her win. “I really like clay – I love to play on clay – and this was my first match of the season on clay. … I had lost the last couple of first rounds. So, I knew I had to bring everything and I did today. It felt very good to play this level and I was really enjoying it.”

• Meanwhile, Mateas was overmatched by 2021 Charleston champion Veronika Kudermetova of Russia, 6-0, 6-2, in an hour and 18 minutes. Kudermetova won 73 percent of her first-serve points, hit 24 winners and converted six of 18 break points. She outpointed Mateas 64-35. Next, Kudermetova, whose younger sister, 59th-ranked Polina defeated No. 76 Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania, 6-0, 6-2 for her first tour-level clay-court win, will face No. 8 seed Anisimova on Tuesday.

• Over on Althea Gibson Club Court, Americans Robin Montgomery and qualifier Caty McNally won their first-round matches. The 105th-ranked Montgomery easily advanced over No. 65 Viktoriya Tomova of Bulgaria, 6-1, 6-3, in one hour and 13 minutes, by taking advantage of six breaks of her opponent’s serve. She outpointed Tomova 63-43 to set up a second-round matchup against No. 7 seed Collins. Montgomery’s first Charleston triumph moved boosted her live ranking up to No. 100.

Next, the 222nd-ranked McNally rallied from a set and 1-4 down in the final set to defeat No. 68 Angelina Kalinina of Ukraine, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, in two hours and 20 minutes. McNally, who is on the comeback trail after undergoing elbow surgery a year ago, converted seven of 12 break points and outpointed her opponent 91-76. Next, she will face No. 14 seed Anna Kalinskaya of Russia in Wednesday’s second round.

• Other Monday singles winners: No. 87 Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia and No. 66 Varvara Gracheva of France.

• No. 1 doubles seeds Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand advanced to the quarterfinal round with a 2-6, 6-3, 10-2 win over Viktoriya Tomova of Bulgaria and Katie Volynets of the United States. Also, advancing to the quarterfinal round were Hailey Baptiste and Caty McNally of the United States and the team of Olivia Gadecki of Australia and Eri Hozumi of Japan.

• Monday’s evening session matches in Credit One Stadium featuring former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin of the United States, ranked 44th, against American Bernarda Pera, ranked 80th, followed by No. 67 Ann Li of the United States against No. 79 Anna Blinkova of Russia, was cancelled due to inclement weather and rescheduled for Tuesday. Kenin led Pera 4-2 after 28 minutes when play was called.

Around the Credit One Charleston Open

• On Sunday, the Credit One Charleston Open celebrated the legacy of South Carolina native and tennis trailblazer Althea Gibson, who broke the color barrier on Aug. 28, 1950 when competed in the U.S. Nationals at the West Side Tennis Club courts in Forest Hills, N.Y.

In a ceremony that took place, appropriately, on her namesake court – the Althea Gibson Club Court – Michelle Curry, of the Althea Gibson Community Tennis Association, said of Gibson: “Althea was a person who believed in a village. She believed that anything she accomplished, others helped her get there. So, her blazing the trail for the Venuses, the Sloanes, the Naomis, the Cocos, it was just part of the nature of the beast for her. That is what she did.

“She believed in sharing, in educating, in advocating, in passing on what she knew, and to make the ones she taught better than her. That’s a true teacher.”

Gibson, who became the first African American player to win a Grand Slam title when she won the Roland Garros title in 1956, won 11 Grand Slam titles combined in singles (5), doubles (5) and mixed doubles (1). She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1971.

Credit One Charleston Open tournament director Bob Moran said, “We will continue to honor Althea’s legacy for many, many years to come.”

Monday’s Charleston Open results

Tuesday’s Charleston Open order of play

By the numbers

While Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu is the oldest player in the tournament at age 34, there are five 20-year-olds – Erika Andreeva and Diana Shnaider of Russia, Ashlyn Kruger and Robin Montgomery of the United States and Marina Stakusic of Canada – who share honors as youngest players in the singles draw.

“Quotable …”

“For me, personally, [Charleston] is a big part of my journey. I started at the LTP (Learn To Play) and got my ranking there. To come back here and play this massive event is very special.”

– Caroline Dolehide of the United States, during her on-court interview, on what makes playing the Credit One Charleston Open special.

 

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