Tennis Atlantic

Unless my eyes are lying, everyone’s here now except Bartoli, because Aga withdrew.

Jill Craybas, Karolina Pliskova, Paula Ormaechea, Mariana Duque-Marino, Akgul Amanmuradova, Melanie Oudin, Yaraslava Shvedova, Camila Giorgi, Iveta Benesova and Mirjana Lucic have already punched their tickets into the Family Circle Cup main draw.  Craybas’ victory over Madison Brengle was a lopsided match at 6-4, 6-2. Charleston’s Shelby Rogers yielded to Paula Ormaechea of Argentina in a 7-5, 6-3 decision despite incredible crowd support for Rogers. Mariana Duque-Marino cruised past Marta Domachowska of Poland 6-4, 6-3, Karolina Pliskova entered the main draw with a 6-4, 6-2 drubbing of Michelle Larcher de Brito and Akgul Amanmuradova defeated Vladimira Uhlirova  6-4, 3-6, 6-4. Also, Yaraslava Shvedova outlasted Andrea Hlavackova 7-6, 7-5, Camila Giorgi escaped Yung-Jan Chan 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-3, Mirjana Lucic advanced over Estrella Cabeza Candela 6-2, 6-2, and #1 seed Iveta Benesova lived up to her top ranking with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win over Kristyna Plisova.

Melanie Oudin dominated throughout her match against Petra Rampre 6-3, 6-2. Oudin’s high energy level was evident in her long win last night and it would have been  a shocker if she were not to have qualified this afternoon. The Althea Gibson Court crowd was so overwhelmingly Oudin, even the owls and herons overhead were heard calling her name.

–S. Fogleman