Jessica Pegula’s title defense at the Credit One Charleston Open is still alive, though a straightforward match continued to elude the No. 1 seed in the third round on Thursday. Twenty-four hours after holding off Yulia Putintseva in a 3-hour, 10-minute marathon, Pegula needed to come from 4-1 down in the third set to escape No. 14 seed Elisabetta Cocciaretto 1-6, 6-1, 7-6(1) in 2 hours and 5 minutes.
Charleston: Scores | Draws | Order of play
The American was two points from defeat down 5-4 in the third set, but from 6-5 down reeled off 11 of the last 12 points of the match to advance to her 10th consecutive quarterfinal on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz. Pegula’s last loss before the last eight of a tournament was to Magda Linette in the Cincinnati third round last August.
The result also bolstered Pegula’s ever-impressive third-set statistics even further. She’s now 8-1 in three-set matches in 2026, and 17-4 since the US Open.
“It was a challenge, she was playing really well,” Pegula said in her on-court interview. “She beat me the last time we played, so there was a bit of a mental thing too, but I was able to serve really well, I think, at the end. And then I just held my nerve …
“I found a couple of good patterns — I was hitting my backhand pretty well, and I just wanted to stick with what felt good in the moment. That was my backhand down the line, I think I came up with some big ones at the end that kind of saved me.”
More to come…
