Last year’s runner-up, Ons Jabeur of Tunisia exacted revenge on reigning champion Belinda Bencic to capture the 2023 Charleston Open with a tight straight-sets victory over the Swiss player.
The Tunisian world No. 5 battled from a breakdown in the first set and then held her nerve in set two to move to 15-4 in her Charleston career, beating the Swiss star 7-6(6) 6-4. This was her fourth career title and the first of the season.
Interestingly, Jabeur and Bencic were the first duos to face off in back-to-back finals in tournament history.
“I’ve been wanting to win this tournament for a long time. People have been amazing to me. So it’s nice to have a great memory here in Charleston and this is a pretty good start to the clay season,” Jabeur said.
“I’m very excited to go to Paris and celebrate with my family and with my little nephew, who was just born three weeks ago. This is his gift. He doesn’t know it, but it’s his gift.”
Jabeur was just 4-4 coming into Charleston having undergone minor knee surgery in February. The No. 2 seed didn’t drop a set all week, including a win over 2017 champion Daria Kasatkina in the rain on Saturday afternoon.
With a win, Jabeur moved back up to world No. 4 as Charleston kicked off the clay swing on the WTA Tour, in which Jabeur is the defending champion in Madrid.
Since the start of the 2020 season, the Tunisian has now won 37 matches on clay, the most of any player on tour, one more than Iga Swiatek during that span.
On the other hand, all-American pair Danielle Collins and Desirae Krawczyk saved two match points to defeat top seeds Giuliana Olmos and Ena Shibahara 0-6, 6-4 [14-12] to win the women’s doubles title.
The title win is the first doubles win of Collins’ career and the eighth and first of the season for No.10 Krawczyk.
Charleston Open was the first tournament of the season for the all-American duo. In their last pairing, Collins and Krawczyk made the Wimbledon semifinals last summer.
