There’s a report quantity of prize cash on supply on the Charleston Open, and the winner’s cheque has greater than doubles.
This yr’s Charleston Open champion win obtain double what Jessica Pegula earned in 2025 (Picture: Getty)
The Charleston Open attracts to a conclusion on Sunday, with reigning champion Jessica Pegula and Yuliia Starodubtseva going through off for the trophy – and for a report prize cheque. This yr, event organisers dedicated £1.9m ($2.5m) to their participant monetary bundle, greater than double the minimal required purse of £911k ($1.2m) for a WTA 500 occasion.
Of the £1.9m bundle, £1.7m ($2.3m) of this can be distributed in prize cash, and the remaining goes in direction of the Girls’s Tennis Advantages Affiliation (WTBA), which presents participant advantages, together with pensions, medical health insurance, and subsidised faculty tuition.
The report sum makes the Charleston Open the primary standalone WTA 500 event to realize equal prize cash with comparable ATP 500 occasions on the boys’s ATP Tour. At present, the WTA has set a goal for his or her standalone 1000 and 500 occasions to supply the identical prize cash as equal ATP tournaments by 2033.
Because of the event’s funding, this yr’s champion will obtain £267k ($354,345), greater than double the £123k ($164k) that Pegula earned for lifting the trophy in 2025. The 2026 runner-up will obtain £165k ($218k). Those that misplaced within the first spherical have already earned £10k ($13.8k), up from £4.8k ($6.4k) final yr.
Addressing the massive improve in prize cash, defending champion Pegula, who additionally serves on the WTA Participant Council, stated: “Seeing a event like Charleston decide to equal prize cash issues. It reveals that the work we put in and the extent we compete at are being recognised. When tournaments proceed to take a position equally, it sends a transparent message to present gamers and the following era about the place the game is headed.”
Venus Williams additionally counseled the event for reaching pay parity with ATP 500s. “This can be a enormous second for the legacy of our sport which sends a strong message to the gamers, followers and the way forward for tennis. It reveals actual progress and a perception within the worth of girls’s sport,” she stated.
Madison Keys, who received the title in 2019 and reached the semi-finals this yr, added: “It represents actual progress for ladies’s tennis and reveals how far the game continues to develop. As gamers, we’re very lucky to have a event and title sponsor who genuinely sees the worth in girls’s sports activities and are keen to steer by instance.”
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