Quick and dirty. That’s how those who qualified for Charleston’s main draw in the early part of the day did it. With 35 mph wind gusts, these players may have broken a Family Circle Cup record for most service-ball-toss do-overs. Ever.
They also got a lot of clay dust in the face in the process of earning a ticket to play on with the big dogs.
Unlike yesterday, today’s early matches moved with relative speed.
Grace Min raced to a 6-1 first set, and Zarina Diyas never saw it coming, as Min qualifies 1 and 2 in 63 minutes.
Shortly before that, Saisai Zheng became the first to qualify in Charleston when Estrella Cabeza Candela retired down 2-6, 0-1.
Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko scored a routine 6-3, 6-3 win over an outmatched Aliaksandra Sasnovich, in a game with lots of drop shots and lobs by Tsurenko.
Then, things got a bit more complicated.
Michelle Larcher de Brito won a contentious match against Madison Brengle in a third set tiebreak, 7-5, 5-7, 7-6(3). Both players had many chances to close this one out, and Brengle lost her composure in the tiebreak. She was distracted by Larcher de Brito’s grunting, and finally complained to the Chair Umpire about it during the tiebreak changeover. Brengle was down 5-1 at that point. Too little, too late.
“She’s doing it when I haven’t even finished my shot.”, Brengle grumbled. She added, “I try and be nice. She’s my friend. I don’t want to sound like, rude.”
Alla Kudryavtseva also survived a marathon, taking out Sesil Karatantcheva 5-7, 6-3, 6-2.
Belinda Bencic got the better of Mathilde Johansson in the final set, winning 7-5, 2-6, 6-4.
Taylor Townsend took Jarmila Gajdosova to a third set before the veteran clamped down to advance back to the main draw 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-3.
Victoria Duval also gave Kiki Bertens a fight, but Bertens was slightly better in a competitive match. Bertens advanced, 6-4, 7-5.
Tomorrow’s main draw matches begin at 10:00 a.m.
—S. Fogleman
Tennis Atlantic 