Tennis Atlantic

Charlottesville, Virginia–Top seed Iva Jovic has been the darling of the tournament all week on the courts of the Boar’s Head at the W100 Women’s Open in Charlottesville. She played her most complete match of the tournament yesterday, dispatching Laura Pigossi, 6-4, 6-7(8), 6-4 after having notched straight sets victories over Claire Liu, Caty McNally and Whitney Osigwue earlier in the week.

Pigossi played Jovic hard in each set, and when the Brazilian came back from an early break to steal the second set tiebreak to level the match, it seemed that Pigossi had her right where she wanted her opponent. After all, she engineered a 3+ hour comeback against Iryna Shymanovich the day before in similar fashion. Jovic held her composure and closed out the semifinal in 3:27.

Thanks to her for speaking with us right after the win, depsite obvious exhaustion. She credited Pigossi’s excellent game and was grateful to advance. Jovic will meet Irina Maria Bara in today’s final. The Romanian easily won against Astra Sharma, 6-4, 6-2 on an alternate court after the lengthy Jovic-Pigossi contest threatened the receding sunlight on Stadium Court.

Jovic has played as you would expect a #1 seed to do: make the final. Bara has been under the radar all week, but she told me how much she loves the venue and she’s been at peace all week strolling the grounds with her boyfriend in tow. I thought Pigossi’s big girl energy could crack Jovic’s code yesterday and I think there’s a decent chance that Bara’s excellent mental health and experience will make this a very competitive match. Bara is a +265 underdog for the 1:00 pm start.

Iryna Shymanovich and Maria Kozyreva won the doubles final over Kayla Cross and Petra Hule, 7-5, 7-5. Something funny happened on the way to the trophy ceremony. There’s been a mix-up between UPS and the Boar’s Head regarding a misplaced package which resulted in the participants being unable to receive their hardware after the final. The winners posed with the singles winner’s trophy and the finalists were left clasping their own empty hands. It was a light-hearted moment, but let me emphatically state that no one runs a better tournament than Ron Manilla. In my time, I’ve watched him take care of everything under his control in the 20-odd men’s and women’s tournaments he’s presided over at the Boar’s Head in the last 15 years. He would have carved the trophies himself if he had known in advance.

–S. Fogleman