Raindrops and Dropshots: Day 1 Qualifying @FamilyCircleCup Goes Late
Stephan Fogleman, Tennis East Coast
CHARLESTON, S.C. (March 29, 2014)—Rain delayed the start of Family Circle Cup qualifying in Charleston today, pushing the 10:00 a.m. schedule to a 1:00 p.m. start. And wouldn’t you know it, six of the first eight matches after the delayed start went three sets.
Grace Min eased by a punchy Danka Kovinic, 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-2 in 2:23.
Min
Alla Kudryatseva knocked out Arantxa Parra Santonja in 2:04, winning 2-6, 6-4, 7-5.
Sesil Karatantcheva beat American Sanaz Marand 3-6, 6-2, 6-1.
Taylor Townsend took a 5-1 3rd set lead, but almost didn’t close it out. She prevailed over Alize Lim, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, in 2:14.
Michelle Larcher de Brito was her usual expressive self, but faced an equally feisty and noisy Jennifer Elie. In a topsy-turvy match filled with momentous momentum swings, LDB didn’t let herself get in the way in the third as she found her way to a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 match that lasted two hours.
Saisai Zheng outhustled Anastasia Rodionova in 2:26 with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 marathon win.
Rampre is tough on herself: This was only the coin toss!
Petra Rampre was beating herself up today, and she’d only lost the coin toss in the above photo. She must have known something, as she fell in straights to Aliaksandra Sasnovich, 7-5, 6-1.
Sasnovich
In other non-three-setters, Madison Brengle played well in a 6-2, 7-6(3) win over Alicja Rosolska, 6-2, 7-6(3), Lesia Tsurenko dominated Alex Mueller 6-0, 6-2, Belinda Bencic rolled through Yung-Jan Chan, 6-3, 6-3, and Mathilde Johansson got off to an early start against Louisa Chirico and never looked back, 6-1, 6-4.
In the unscheduled ‘nightcaps’, Victoria Duval beat Charleston native Ellie Halbauer 2 & 2, Jarmila Gajdosova took out Tamira Paszek in a battle of veterans, 6-3, 7-6(5) and Kiki Bertens got the victory in the final match of the day at 8:05 p.m. against Olga Savchuk, 6-4, 6-2.
Oh, and Daniela Is All In On Daniel Island.
Daniela Is All In For Charleston
Tennis Atlantic 