Boyd Tinsley Classic

Qualifiers Set and Main Draw Underway @Cville_USTA Charlottesville
Steve Fogleman, Tennis Atlantic

Whitney Osuigwe, 2019 Boar's Head Women's Tennis Open

Main draw play at The Boar’s Head Women’s Tennis Open got underway today in Charlottesville, Virginia under warm and sunny conditions. Gone is Boyd Tinsley, the Dave Matthews Band violinist and local patron of the sport. Gone is the most interesting little trophy in tennis. A year after Tinsley ran into a little bit of trouble, his name’s been wiped clean from the resort.

Tennis moves on. Today featured a large crowd for an ITF event, undoubtedly brought out by the weather. April in Virginia is tricky by nature, and today’s dry conditions will be replaced by soggier times on Friday. If you like the heat and you like it fast, today was the today to notch a quick victory.

Whitney Osuigwe breezed past Kayla Day, 6-0, 6-4, to become the first main draw match winner in Charlottesville. Australian Zoe Hives, who’d lost four matches in a row, got back into the win column with a 6-4, 7-6(3) victory over American Cori Gauff. Hives was ecstatic after the match, yelling, quite seriously, “I won a match! Finally!” Those two will face off in the round of 16 on Thursday.

Zoe Hives, 2019 Boar's Head Women's Tennis Open Sesil Karatantcheva, 2019 Boar's Head Women's Tennis Open

The match of the day had blowout written all over it in the first set as Madison Brengle took the opener from Lizette Cabrera 6-1 in 23 minutes. Yet, it was not going to be an easy day for the 2017 tournament champion. Cabrera grabbed the second, 6-3 and things started to look like they might be headed to a third set breaker and they surely did. Brengle dominated the breaker for a 3^rd set victory, 7-6(3) and a date against Asia Muhammad or Ellen Perez in the next round. Sesil Karatantcheva easily defeated Urszula Radwanska, 6-2, 6-2, and she’ll meet either Francesca DiLorenzo or Caty McNally.

Qualifiers today included Sanaz Marand and Abbie Myers in straight sets and Ingrid Neel and Emily Fanning in third set superbreakers.

Tomorrow’s order of play will showcase Americans Taylor Townsend, Caroline Dolehide, Louisa Chirico and 2018 finalist Anhelina Kalinina.

Make it Eight Straight Sets for Duque-Marino as she advances to TinsleyClassic Final in Charlottesville

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Mariana Duque-Marino made it four straight matches without dropping a set at the 2018 Boyd Tinsley Women’s Clay Court Classic in Charlottesville, Virginia with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over American Jennifer Brady. Both players came out tentatively, and Duque-Marino even gave up a break on a

double-fault before settling down to take the first set and the match. “I think I did a lot of double faults because she was pressuring me with her forehand,” she told me after the match. “So if I didn’t put the first serve on the court, I would have to run–a lot. That’s why I was trying to force the second serve a little bit,” she continued. “My forehand was very good and with my slice, very happy today.”

Boyd Tinsley Women’s Clay Court Classic Trophy

Duque-Marino will put her 8 set win streak on the line tomorrow against either Taylor Townsend or Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine. Townsend beat Duque-Marino in 3 sets last week in the Dothan final. I pointed out the Boar’s Head trophy, which stood nearby and asked if she’d like to take the glass and metal violin trophy home with her tomorrow.

“It’s different. I never had one of those ones, but tomorrow I hope to play the same like the matches before.” she said with a smile.

—S. Fogleman, Tennis Atlantic