Charleston semifinals: Can anyone stop Pegula's run to the title?

Whatever the result in Friday’s final quarterfinal matchup, it was going to deliver a third American into Saturday’s semifinals.

In the end, Amanda Anisimova won seven of eight points in a tiebreak and took out hometown favorite Emma Navarro 7-5, 7-6 (1) at the Credit One Charleston Open.

The last time three Americans reached the semifinals at this event came in 2003. Justine Henin defeated Serena Williams in the Family Circle Cup final, ending her searing 21-0 start to the season.

Will one of the Americans take home the title this year or will Ekaterina Alexandrova break through for another championship?

No. 1 Jessica Pegula vs. No. 9 Ekaterina Alexandrova (1 p.m. ET)

Case for Pegula: She’s the most in-form player in this final four.

The 31-year-old American came back Friday to defeat defending champion Danielle Collins 1-6, 6-3, 6-0 -- winning the last nine games. She’s on a roll similar to Collins’ when she won back-to-back titles last year in Miami and Charleston.

Pegula reached the final in Miami, losing to World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, and has won her first three matches here, giving her eight of nine. This matches her best result in Charleston and she’ll be keen to take the next step after falling short the past two years.

Pegula, No. 4 in the PIF WTA rankings, is playing her kind of tennis, flat and quick, and moving well. She’ll need to step it up a level against Alexandrova, who has beaten her the past two times out.

But … Pegula’s only win over Alexandrova came on clay four years ago in Rome.

Pegula escapes Collins from 6-1, 2-0 down in Charleston quarters

“Obviously she’s beaten a lot of top players,” Pegula said. “But I’m hoping on the clay it will be a different story. The last time I beat her was on the clay so hopefully I can use that to my advantage a little bit.”

Why Pegula? No one has won more matches than her 23 this year.

Case for Alexandrova: Wade deep into the numbers and you’ll find this little gem -- Pegula has prevailed in eight of her past 10 quarterfinal matches. Guess who won the other two? That’s right, Alexandrova, recently in Doha and last year in Miami.

Sometimes the matchup just works; Alexandrova seems to have Pegula figured out. She actually dropped the first set in both of those quarters and came back to win definitively. In Doha, it was a chilling 6-1, 6-1.

“She’s always consistent -- on serve and return, like on every shot,” Alexandrova said of Pegula. “There’s no easy targets with her and you just need to earn every single point. You just need to be prepared to play point after point because nothing’s going to be easy with her.”

Alexandrova is a streaky player; she won eight straight matches earlier this year, taking the title at the Linz 500 and reaching the semifinals in Doha. She came into Charleston on a four-match losing streak, but now she’s won three in a row. To get here, she took out No. 6 Diana Shnaider 6-2, 6-1 and on Friday No.3 Zheng Qinwen 6-1, 6-4. That ended Zheng’s 13-match win streak on clay.

At 30, Alexandrova has a chance for some personal history. While she has “kind of like a love-hate relationship” with clay, she’s in a great position here. She’s been to two clay-court semifinals (including 2022 Charleston), but never to a final. Yet.

No. 8 Amanda Anisimova vs. Sofia Kenin (to follow)

Case for Anisimova: She showed terrific tenacity against Navarro, who was strongly supported by a packed house.

Navarro was serving for the second set at 5-3 and was up 30-0 when Anisimova went to work. Returning well -- something she’ll need to continue against Kenin -- Anisimova forced the decisive tiebreak. It was critical because this would have been Navarro’s 39th three-setter since the start of the 2024 season with a stellar record of 27-11.

The two have played twice but it’s difficult to read too much into those two ITF tournaments played eight years ago. For what it’s worth, Anisimova won the only one played on clay, in Dothan, Alabama.

“It was so long ago,” Anisimova said in her on-court interview. “She was also someone I didn’t want to play back then. Yeah, it’s been a while. Going to be playing an American, so hopefully the crowd will be great out here again. Hopefully it will be a good match.”

This matches her best result in Charleston --- and her best ever in a WTA 500 event. Anisimova will feel good about this one. She’s won 13 matches so far in 2025, winning her first WTA 1000 event a few months ago in Doha.

Case for Kenin: Her history here hasn’t been great -- 2-6 in main-draw matches -- but this year she’s cobbled together four impressive match wins.

The only unseeded player left, Kenin has yet to drop a set, beating seeded players Belinda Bencic, Daria Kasatkina and Anna Kalinskaya in the past three. Against Kalinskaya, Kenin served well, winning 26 of 32 first-serve points (81 percent) and was broken only once.

“Amanda’s a very solid, very flat hitter,” Kenin said. “She’s added variety to her game, drop shots, coming in. It’s going to be hit or miss from both of our sides because we both like the flat game. We don’t really like to play those long points, do all that sliding.

“But yeah, I’m looking forward to it. One American’s going to be in the finals, I’m just hoping that’s me.”

The only other time Kenin got through to a clay-court semifinal? Five years ago when, on the heels of her Australian Open title, she reached the final at Roland Garros.

“Been playing some great tennis this year, especially this week,” Kenin said. “I took this as a great opportunity, very happy with my level. It’s only great things, let’s see what happens tomorrow.”

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