Charlottesville, Virginia–The prize money-enhanced W100 Boar’s Head Resort Women’s Open in Charlottesville opened with several prominent American players this week. Jamie Loeb, Caty McNally, Lauren Davis. They’re all gone by now. The top seed, though, is 17-year-old Iva Jovic and she’s still here.
Jovic dispatched Whitney Osigwue 6-2, 6-4 yesterday to advance to a semifinal against Brazilian Laura Pigossi later today. After the match, Jovic told me that Novak Djokovic was a bit of an idol for her while growing up and that she’s a fan of Jannik Sinner and Belinda Bencic. The young American, who can already count a main draw win in the US Open and Australian Open, has been the darling of the tournament all week and is heavily favored to win today.
Not so fast. Enter the dark horse. A feisty Brazilian Laura Pigossi came back in furious fashion yesterday during a three hour fight in what may go down as the best match of the tournament, besting Iryna Shymanovich 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. If she has the energy in the tank today, I would edge towards Pigossi over Jovic as she opened as a whopping +410 underdog last night.
Today’s other semifinal pits two more familiar names on the WTA tour. Irina Bara embarrassed Lauren Davis on Friday, 6-3, 7-6(2) to stick around for a shot at the Charlottesville title in her fourth attempt. The Romanian raced out to a first set lead before it appeared that Davis was ready to level the match at 5-2 in the second set. Davis squandered multiple service games and the damage was done by the time she limped into the tiebreak, where she wilted with a 1-5 start. Bara says she loves the courts here and the venue and it showed yesterday. She was joined by her boyfriend for a big hug after the win.
Bara will face the always-upbeat Astra Sharma today. The Australian notched an easy victory over Hanna Chang 6-3, 6-1 and appears to be in good form for a repeat of the last meeting between the two players when Sharma defeated Bara in the first round of the main draw at Roland Garros in 2021.
The doubles final will kick off the action today on the courts of the Boar’s Head with Irina Shymanovich and Maria Kozyreva battling Kayla Cross and Petra Hule for the title.
—S. Fogleman
Tennis Atlantic 
Return Serve?