After the US hard court swing, the WTA Tour now transitions to clay, led by the green version in South Carolina, where the WTA 500 Credit One Charleston Open is being played this week, while the traditional red clay is on offer at the WTA 250 Copa Colsanitas presentado par VISA in Bogota, Colombia.
Charleston | WTA 500 Credit One Charleston Open
Action in Charleston kicked off on Monday in Charleston, where Britain’s Harriet Dart fell in 3 sets to Varvara Gracheva of France, 6-1 3-6 6-1, at the first hurdle.
Dart has not had much of a run on any surface on the main tour this season, but came into the match marginally ahead of Gracheva’s more disastrous year, on paper, and it was the 66th-ranked Russian-born Frenchwoman who proved the more solid against the British No 3, who is currently ranked 109.
American Katie Volynets needed less than an hour to deliver a double bagel to Canadian qualifier Katherine Sebov in her 1st-round opener.
The 23-year-old Californian put 87% of her first serves in play and won 81% of her first-serve points in the 6-0 6-0 rout, in which she never faced a break point.
Three other Americans also earned wins on Day 1, with Robin Montgomery topping Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova, 6-1 6-3; Caroline Dolehide downing Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto, 6-4 6-1, after coming from 2-4 down in the first set; and Caty McNally rallying past Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina, 4-6 6-1 6-4.
Also advancing were Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic, who found her way past lucky loser Kyoka Okamura, 3-6 6-1 6-2, and will face No16 seed Peyton Stearns from the USA next; while the two Russian Kudermetova sisters also progressed, Polina beating Romania’s 3-time Charleston quarter-finalist Irina-Camilia Begu, 6-3 6-4, to score her first career clay-court win in a Hologic WTA Tour main draw, and Veronika, who won her first WTA singles title here in 2021, moving into the 2nd-round with a 6-0 6-2 win over American wild-card Maria Mateas.
Nine of the world’s Top 20 players are competing in Charleston, led by Jessica Pegula, Madison Keys, Qinwen Zheng and Emma Navarro, the 4 top seeds.
Pegula, the World No 4, who has made the Charleston semi-finals in each of the last two years, and is seeking her first final here, will face either British wild-card Heather Watson or Irina Shymanovich, a Russian qualifier in the 2nd-round after her opening bye.
The defending champion is Danielle Collins, who is seeded 7th in a strong field that includes 2017 runner-up Jelena Ostapenko and 2022 champion Belinda Bencic, as well as Amanda Anisimova, who won this year’s first WTA 1000 title in Doha, and Daria Kasatkina, playing in her event representing her new country of Australia.
Danielle Collins is the defending champion at WTA 500 Credit One Charleston Open this week but faces a strong field
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Bogota | WTA 250 Copa Colsanitas presentado par VISA
Rain wiped out the entire schedule on the opening day at Bogota in Colombia.
