CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Top-seeded Jessica Pegula rallied from a set down and beat fellow American Amanda Anisimova 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3) in a second-round match at the Charleston Open on Tuesday night.
Pegula had seven aces in the match and won despite capitalizing on 4 of 15 break points. Anisimova converted on 4 of 8 break points.
Pegula said Anisimova is tough to play because she is a great ball striker, and she can take the racket out of an opponent's hands.
“I just kind of had to buckle down, and I think I started being a little bit more active with my feet and pressuring her a little bit more and being able to move her and kind of scrap out a few points as well,” Pegula said. “So, yeah, I just kind of found a way today, but it was a really great match, I thought, especially the last set was super high level.”
Third-seeded Maria Sakkari of Greece also advanced to the third round with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Viktoriya Tomova of Bulgaria, while Magda Linette of Poland lost the first set at love and came back to beat No. 13 seed Dayana Yastremska of Bulgaria 0-6, 6-4, 6-3 in a second-round match.
Earlier in the day, Miami Open champion Danielle Collins and Sloane Stephens won first-round matches. Collins beat Paula Badosa 6-1, 6-4 at the clay-court tournament, while Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion, defeated Magdalena Frech 6-0, 6-2.
Collins has disclosed this will be her finish season on tour. She has endometriosis, an ailment that affects the uterus.
“I’d rather like to go out with a bang, you know, than the other way," Collins said. "I know everybody has a different way of ending their professional career, and for me I want to go out playing my best tennis.”
Stephens is playing on her favorite surface.
“It's more athletic. It's more running, more sliding, just a lot more adversity I feel like, but in a good way,” she said. “When you think the point is over, it's never over.”
Other winners Tuesday included Taylor Townsend, Astra Sharma, Caroline Dolehide, Ashlyn Krueger and Elisabetta Cocciaretto.
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
Jessica Pegula, of the United States, celebrates a point against Ekaterina Alexandrova, of Russia, during the Miami Open tennis tournament Wednesday, March 27, 2024, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)
Danielle Collins holds the Butch Buchholz trophy after defeating Elena Rybakina, of Kazakhstan, in the women's singles final of the Miami Open tennis tournament, Saturday, March 30, 2024, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday named his one-time defense attorney and current White House counselor Alina Habba to be the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey.
Habba, who turns 41 Tuesday, takes over the interim post from John Giordano, whom the president said he's naming to be the U.S. ambassador for the southwestern African country of Namibia.
A partner in a small New Jersey law firm near Trump’s Bedminster golf course, Habba served as a senior adviser for Trump's political action committee, defended him in court in several civil lawsuits and acted as a spokesperson last year as he volleyed between courtrooms and the campaign trail.
U.S. attorneys often have experience as prosecutors, including at the state or local level. Many, including the acting U.S. attorneys in Brooklyn and Manhattan, have worked in the offices they now lead.
Habba said she looked forwards to working with Attorney General Pam Bondi to pursue the president's agenda of “putting America first,” and going after the people “we should be going after.” She criticized Democrats Sen. Cory Booker and Gov. Phil Murphy for their stewardship of the state.
“If you look at what happened in crime, what’s going on in Newark, what’s going on in Camden, this has been a neglected state. It is one of the most populated states for its size and it needs to stop. We’re gonna do a bang up job,” Habba said Monday.
Spokespeople for Booker and Murphy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Camden officials said earlier this year that violent crime rates reached a 55-year low, crediting the county police department. Officials in Newark, the state's largest city, said late last year that homicide rates had fallen but other crime levels had increased in 2024.
Habba was one of Trump’s most visible defense attorneys, appearing on cable TV news as his “legal spokesperson.” She represented Trump in 2024 in the defamation case involving E. Jean Carroll.
But Habba has had limited federal court experience, practicing mainly in state-level courts. During the Carroll trial, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan chided Habba for botching procedure, misstating the law asking about off-limits topics and objecting after he ruled.
Habba and Trump were fined nearly $1 million in 2023 for filing what a Florida judge called a bogus lawsuit against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Habba has also represented Siggy Flicker, formerly of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey,” in 2021 as she sought to restore her Facebook account, which the reality star claimed had been disabled after she made a post wishing First Lady Melania Trump a happy birthday.
Habba was the plaintiff’s attorney in 2021 a defamation lawsuit against a Portuguese weekly magazine, which was later dismissed.
Giordano was sworn in as New Jersey's interim U.S. attorney earlier this month. He previously served as a counselor to the assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division. Giordano also served as a federal prosecutor in Virginia.
Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Will Weissert in Washington and Michael R. Sisak in New York contributed to this report.
Alina Habba, a former defense lawyer for President Donald Trump who has been named interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, speaks to members of the media, Monday, March 24, 2025, outside the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Alina Habba, a former defense lawyer for President Donald Trump who has been named interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, speaks to members of the media, Monday, March 24, 2025, outside the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Alina Habba, a former defense lawyer for President Donald Trump who has been named interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, speaks to members of the media, Monday, March 24, 2025, outside the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Alina Habba, a former defense lawyer for President Donald Trump newly named interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, speaks to members of the media, Monday, March 24, 2025, outside the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Alina Habba, a former defense lawyer for President Donald Trump who has been named interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, speaks to members of the media, Monday, March 24, 2025, outside the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Alina Habba, a former defense lawyer for President Donald Trump who has been named interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, walks toward the microphones to speak to members of the media, Monday, March 24, 2025, outside the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
