Jessica Pegula has overtaken Coco Gauff to become the American number one after winning the Charleston Open.
Pegula fought back to beat Sofia Kenin in the Charleston Open final, as she claimed the second WTA title of her 2025 season so far.
After winning the Charleston title, Pegula was congratulated by Gauff and many of her other peers on social media.
It has been a strong start to the season for Pegula, who has been praised for her mentality over these past few weeks after bouncing straight back from losing in the Miami Open final.
John Isner reacts to Jessica Pegula overtaking Coco Gauff as American number one
It has not been such an enjoyable recent period for Gauff, who has struggled for form over both the Middle Eastern swing and the sunshine double.
Winning just four of her last nine matches, Gauff has now been overtaken by the in-form Pegula, who is now the world number three and top ranked American WTA player.
When speaking about this switch-up on the Nothing Major Podcast, former top 10 ATP player John Isner was full of praise for Pegula, who has a title on every surface now after winning on the Charleston clay and is also the WTA Tour leader in terms of match wins.
“She now has 25 wins for the year. That’s number one on the WTA Tour,” said Isner. “And she will now become the number one ranked American, as she takes over Coco Gauff and Jessie will rise to number three. She is on a heater so far this year!
“Awesome for us, we are all big fans of Jessie. She is an incredibly nice person and certainly has a lot of momentum heading into Madrid, which I imagine will be her next tournament.
“She can play well on all surfaces, she just proved that. Clay is probably not her favourite surface. Green clay is a little different to red but she will go into those European tournaments with momentum.”
Despite Isner suggesting that the Madrid Open will be Pegula’s next tournament, she is actually scheduled to join USA’s Billie Jean King Cup team in Slovakia this week and play at the Stuttgart Open before then.
Can Coco Gauff recover the American number one from Jessica Pegula?
Gauff doesn’t care about being American number one, something that she admitted last month when she was in that position.
Despite there being only 38 points separating former doubles partners Pegula and Gauff, the latter has significantly more ranking points to defend in the coming months.
Pegula missed the majority of the clay court swing last year including Roland Garros, and now does not have any ranking points to defend until mid-June.
If Gauff is to have a chance of catching Pegula by the end of Wimbledon, she will need to earn over 1270 more ranking points than her compatriot in that period.
| WTA Rankings | Jessica Pegula | Coco Gauff |
| Current Ranking Total | 6101 | 6063 |
| Points Defending during the clay court season | 0 | 1398 |
| Points Defending during the grass court season | 601 | 435 |
| Minimum Ranking points total after Wimbledon (July 14) | 5500 | 4230 |
Both Pegula and Gauff will next compete on the WTA Tour at the stacked Stuttgart Open, that also features Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek.
The WTA 500 indoor clay court tournament gets underway on Monday April 14, with Ons Jabeur also returning to Stuttgart following an injury scare.
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