Good Morning from Charleston: @FamilyCircleCup Qualifying Day 1
Stephan Fogleman, Tennis East Coast
Stosur after practice with Christina McHale @FCC 12
CHARLESTON, S.C. (March 29, 2014)—It’s 64 and rainy on this Saturday morning, three hours from the scheduled start of first round qualifying matches. In my third year covering the Family Circle Cup, I am always impressed by the magical abilities of the green clay courts to take a soaking and be ready for play less than an hour later.
Nine Americans headline the qualifying draw here today, with play expected to start at 10:00 a.m.
It’s a mad dash for the finish line as eight players will qualify for the tournament’s main draw. Players need just two victories to get there, except for top qualifying seeds Zarina Diyas and Estrella Cabeza Candela, who, with byes in today’s opening round, need only a win tomorrow.
It seems odd to me that there is only a single Russian in qualifying (Alla Kudryatseva), yet there are two Kazakhs (Zarina Diyas and Sesil Karatantcheva), two French (Mathilde Johansson and Alize Lim), two Australians (Jarmila Gajdosova and Anastastia Rodionova), two Spaniards (Estrella Cabeza Candela and Arantxa Parra Santonja) and two Ukrainians (Lesia Tsurenko and Olga Savchuk). As Morrissey once said, “Has the World Changed or Have I Changed?”
One of the nine American players will be an American of first impression for me. Ellie Halbauer is a Charleston native who was granted a wild card by tournament organizers. That’s not really fair. The 16-year-old actually earned that wild card by winning the Dunlap Junior Championship, a pre-qualifying tournament here in Charleston. The Post and Courier’s James Beck spoke with her former coach yesterday.
The main draw selection ceremony begins at 3:00 p.m. and will be live-tweeted from @TennisEastCoast.
So, there you have it. 14 matches, 100% humidity.
It’s warm, it’s wet, it’s Charleston!
CLICK HERE for a Qualifying Singles Printable Draw
CLICK HERE for a Saturday Qualifying Singles Printable Order of Play
ORDER OF PLAY – SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 2014
ALTHEA GIBSON start 10:00 am
Qualifying – G Min (USA) vs D Kovinic (MNE)
Qualifying – A Lim (FRA) vs [WC] T Townsend (USA)
Qualifying – V Duval (USA) vs [WC] E Halbauer (USA)
Qualifying – O Savchuk (UKR) vs K Bertens (NED)
COURT 3 start 10:00 am
Qualifying – A Sasnovich (BLR) vs P Rampre (SLO)
Qualifying – [WC] A Rosolska (POL) vs M Brengle (USA)
Qualifying – M Larcher de Brito (POR) vs [WC] J Elie (USA)
Qualifying – J Gajdosova (AUS) vs T Paszek (AUT)
COURT 4 start 12:00 noon
Qualifying – A Rodionova (AUS) vs S Zheng (CHN)
Not Before 2:00 pm
Qualifying – [WC] A Mueller (USA) vs L Tsurenko (UKR)
Qualifying – L Chirico (USA) vs M Johansson (FRA)
COURT 5 start 12:00 noon
Qualifying – A Kudryavtseva (RUS) vs A Parra Santonja (ESP)
Not Before 2:00 pm
Qualifying – S Marand (USA) vs S Karatantcheva (KAZ)
Qualifying – B Bencic (SUI) vs [WC] Y Chan (TPE)
Tennis Atlantic 