Tennis Atlantic

Qualifiers Fill Out Main Draw @VolvoCarOpen Field of 56
Steve Fogleman, Tennis Atlantic

April 2–Two Americans joined the main draw today and six other qualifiers will compete for the Volvo Car Open title in Charleston, South Carolina. Asia Muhammad and Sofia Kenin won in straight sets, but the most compelling matches today had nothing to do with Americans. Veronica Cepede Royg, Aleksandra Krunic and Ana Bogdan all posted comeback wins after dropping the opening set against a lower-ranked player. As for Bogdan, her opponent was the returning Alexandra Dulgheru, so it was even more difficult. Cepede Royg played the longest match of the weekend in a 2:42 nailbiter, 2-6, 7-6(9), 6-4, while Krunic played the second longest match (2:24) and prevailed 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(5).

It’s the same thing I see every time: lower-ranked players only have a small hope of rolling through the match without awakening the beast on the other side of the net, usually without success.

Kenin’s straight sets victories over Taylor Townsend yesterday was no small feat. Today, she booked a trip to the 56 with straights over Frenchwoman Fiona Ferro. I’m very interested in her first round match against Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

 
Qualifiers compete all weekend to qualify, so you must keep them playing continuously or they are apt to nap for days. Tomorrow, lucky loser Ons Jabeur gets Marina Erakovic, Ana Bogdan meets up with Jelena Ostapenko, Silvia Soler Espinosa plays Kristina Kucova, Anastasia Rodionova draws Ying-Ying Duan, Fanny Stollar and Asia Muhammad face each other, and lucky Veronica Cepede Royg meets hometown fave Shelby Rogers. The only qualifiers to get the day off are Sofia Kenin and Aleksandra Krunic.  Rest up!