The Charleston Open announced Monday it has doubled its total prize money to $2.5 million, making it the first standalone WTA 500 event to match the purse of ATP 500 tournaments. The move affects both singles and doubles draws at the clay-court event held each April on Daniel Island, South Carolina.

The $2.5 million purse represents a 100% increase from the tournament's previous $1.25 million budget. First-round singles losers now collect $8,945, up from roughly $4,500 in 2025. The singles champion takes home $373,400. The Pegula family, which owns the tournament through Pegula Sports and Entertainment, absorbed the full incremental cost. Terry and Kim Pegula bought the event in 2015 for an undisclosed sum; the family also owns the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres.

This matters because Charleston now operates at functional parity with ATP 500 stops like Barcelona, Hamburg, and Washington. Prize-money disparity at the 500 level has been a persistent WTA pain point—Grand Slams achieved parity in 2007, and the WTA 1000s mostly match ATP Masters 1000s, but the 500-tier tournaments have lagged. Charleston's move creates a new comp for sponsors evaluating women's tennis inventory and puts pressure on other WTA 500 events in Cincinnati, Berlin, and Tokyo, none of which currently match ATP 500 purses. It also shifts the negotiation baseline for WTA players and agents when discussing appearance fees and wild-card terms at 500-level events.

The timing is deliberate. Jessica Pegula, the tournament owner's daughter and the defending champion, won the 2026 Charleston title on Sunday and used her post-match press availability to amplify the announcement. She called it "a huge step" and noted that players had been texting her congratulations about the purse before she even stepped on court. The Pegulas did not disclose whether title sponsor Credit One Bank increased its commitment to cover the new purse, but the bank's naming-rights deal runs through 2028. Credit One has been Charleston's title sponsor since 2021; the agreement was reportedly worth $3 million annually at signing, though neither party confirmed that figure.

Watch for other WTA 500 owners to address the comp. The Stuttgart tournament, owned by Porsche and run as a brand activation event, and the Cincinnati event, controlled by the USTA, both have corporate balance sheets that could absorb similar increases. The WTA's next collective-bargaining cycle with tournament operators begins informal talks in late 2026. Charleston's move gives players a concrete reference point. Also worth watching: whether Charleston leverages the purse increase to negotiate better broadcast windows with Tennis Channel or ESPN, both of which currently give the event late-afternoon and streaming-only slots.

The first player to benefit under the new structure was Madison Keys, who lost in Sunday's final and collected $186,700, roughly double what a Charleston finalist earned in 2025.