Action hots up in South Carolina as most of the seeds make it safely through to the Last 16, while, in Colombia, two of the quarter-finals are set after Day 3’s play, with the remaining ones to be settled on Thursday…
[I knew] when I have to attack, when I have to defend, because everybody here is going to make the transition from hard to clay. I believe who does that better here can win the tournament. Qinwen Zheng
Charleston | WTA 500 Credit One Charleston Open
On Wednesday, Russian-born Daria Kasatkina won her first match representing Australia, while top seed Jessica Pegula, No 3 seed Qinwen Zheng and Charleston’s Emma Navarro all advanced to the Last 16 at the Credit One Charleston Open.
Kasatkina, the 5th seed, who won her first tour-level title at the WTA 500 event in 2017, needed just 61 minutes to dispatch home hopeful Lauren Davis, 6-1 6-1, and book a 3rd-round match against another American, Sofia Kenin.
The 27-year-old World No 12 announced on Friday that her application for permanent residency had been accepted by the Australian government.
“I couldn’t handle my smile, even though I was a bit stressed before the match,” Kasatkina said on court after her opening match. “Stepping on court with the new status, with the new flag, it was quite stressful. I had this little baggage of the nerves, and it always explodes as soon as you step on court. I’m happy I was able to handle that.”
As she was applauded by the crowd, Kasatkina’s smile grew even bigger and she thanked them all for their support.
“It’s been a tough couple of years, so I’m really happy to stand here, and feel like that,” she added.
Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion, was emphatic in dispatching No 17 seed Belinda Bencic from Switzerland, 6-0 6-3, rallying from 1-3 down in the second set.
Pegula, the 2024 US Open finalist, bagelled Russian qualifier Irina Shymanovich in the first set before seeing her serve broken twice in the second, although the World No 4 held firm to prevail, 6-0 6-3.
“Up a set, 2-0, I wish I would’ve held for 3-0, didn’t happen… I felt, like, she really picked up her level, going [down the] line a lot, ripping her shots, and playing with nothing to lose,” Pegula said afterwards. “I expected that to happen at some point, but I’m glad I was able to hold on in the second.”
In an attempt to reach her 4th quarter-final in her last 6 tournaments, Pegula will next face Aussie Ajla Tomljanovic, whom she defeated on her way to winning the ATX Open in Austin in February.
Tomljanovic upset 16th-seeded Peyton Stearns from the USA, 6-1 6-4.
Zheng, the No 3 seed from China, cruised through a marquee 2nd-round match on Wednesday night, defeating Maria Sakkari of Greece, 6-4 6-1, to reach the round-of-16.
Making her first Charleston appearance since her tournament debut in 2022, the reigning Olympic Gold medalist needed an hour and 32 minutes to oust Sakkari, a former World No 3, who made last year’s Charleston semi-finals.
“[I knew] when I have to attack, when I have to defend, because everybody here is going to make the transition from hard to clay,” Zheng said in her on-court interview. “I believe who does that better here can win the tournament.”
Sakkari came into the match with a 2-1 head-to-head lead over Zheng, but all of those previous encounters had been on hard court, and clay is a different story.
Until this week, Zheng’s most recent event on the surface was her historic win at the 2024 Paris Olympics, which took place on the famed clay of Roland Garros, and she carried that confidence against Sakkari to extend her run to 12 consecutive matches on the surface.
Next up for Zheng will be a meeting with No 13 seed Elise Mertens from Belgium, who, in Wednesday’s final match on Credit One Stadium, beat Varvara Gracheva of France, 6-3 7-5.
Playing in her home town of Charleston, Emma Navarro made it into the Last 16 for the second time with a win over compatriot Hailey Baptiste on Day 3 of the WTA 500 event in South Carolina.
© Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
Earlier in the day, Navarro, the 4th seed, defeated her American compatriot Hailey Baptiste, 6-4 6-3.
Playing in her home town of Charleston, a unique tournament for Navarro as the event is owned by her billionaire father Ben, she is among 5 of her compatriots who occupy spots in the Top 20 of the rankings.
Coco Gauff currently leads the US contingent on the women’s side of the sport, closely followed by Pegula, while Australian Open winner Madison Keys completes the Top 5 in the world.
“It’s awesome. Even just to be grouped in with those names is really cool,” 10th-ranked Navarro told Sportskeeda. “It’s really cool that American tennis is back, I guess you could say, and thriving.”
“It’s fun to cheer Jess on when she’s playing in Miami, and Maddie, of course, starting the year off winning the Australian Open title. I think we push each other to always keep getting better.”
Her father built his substantial wealth after founding the Sherman Financial Group in 1998, which led to a credit card and debt collection empire.
Navarro’s most valuable asset, Credit One made £356million ($453m) in the most recent financial year, and, according to Forbes, the American stands to inherit a portion of her father’s £3.71billion ($4.8bn) fortune.
Remarkably, that eye-watering figure is smaller than the £5.8billion ($7.6bn) net worth of Pegula’s father Terry, who owns NFL franchise the Buffalo Bills and NHL team Buffalo Sabres.
Also through to the Last 16 is another American, No 15 seed Ashlyn Krueger, who got past her compatriot Katie Volynets, 6-3 7-6(4), and will meet Navarro for a spot in the quarter-finals on Thursday.
Elsewhere, No 6 Diana Shnaider dismissed Polina Kudermetova, 6-3 6-2, in 62 minutes in an all-Russian affair, while another, 9th-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova dropped just 6 points behind her first serve en route to defeating American Ann Li, 6-3 6-0, in 78 minutes.
No 10 seed Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan snapped a 4-match losing streak to defeat qualifier Shuai Zhang, and now owns a 7-match winning streak dating back to 2020 against the Chinese, in a 7-1 overall head-to-head record.
Latvia’s 11th seed, Jelena Ostapenko, a runner-up in Charleston to Kasatkina in 2017, broke her losing streak with a 7-5 6-2 win over American qualifier Louisa Chirico, and 14th seed Anna Kalinskaya, yet another Russian, overturned a break deficit in the second set against qualifier Caty McNally from the USA to move through 6-1 6-4 after 65 minutes.
Qualifier Katarzyna Kawa saved a match point before beating former finalist Laura Pigossi to set up a quarter-final meeting with top seed Marie Bouzkova at the Copa Colsanitas Zurich on Wednesday.
Bogotá | WTA 250 Copa Colsanitas presentado par VISA
Marie Bouzkova took advantage of 9 double-faults from Cyprus’ Raluka Serban on Wednesday, and the top-seeded Czech rolled to a 6-1 6-3 win in the 2nd-round at Bogotá, Colombia, and advance to the quarter-finals.
Bouzkova moves on to face Poland’s Katarzyna Kawa, who got past Laura Pigossi, 1-6 7-6(5) 6-3, the Brazilian failing to take advantage of a match point at 5-4 in the second set.
In other 2nd-round action, Leolia Jeanjean defeated Selena Janicijevic, 6-4 6-3, in an all-French match-up, and will meet American qualifier Julieta Pareja in the Last 8, who topped Romania’s lucky loser Patricia Maria Tig, 6-3 7-6(3).
Pareja was the first 2009-born player to compete in a WTA main draw, and she now becomes the youngest to reach a tour-level quarter-final since a 15-year-old Czech Linda Fruhvirtova at Charleston in 2021.
