Charlottesville, VA–The business end of the tournament is in full swing as they start to hand the hardware out at the Boar’s Head Resort Women’s Open in Charlottesville on a grey, damp and cool Saturday.

Is this the Kayla Day Show or not? Yesterday was a Kayla Day, as she frustrated former World #19 Vavara Lepchenko in a tense 7-6(6), 7-5 win for Day, Charlottesville’s top seed and the current World #84. No other player here is ranked in the top 160 in singles, so the conventional wisdom is that the title is hers to lose.

She’ll be a -130 favorite against Lulu Sun in the second semifinals match. Sun posted a 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 win over Elvina Kalieva of the United States in the quarterfinals.

The big mystery for me here is why Louisa Chirico is such a big underdog against Australian Maya Joint.

Joint is a smaller player with big counterpunches, but Chirico is in form off of last year’s injury. She’s won this tournament before and grew up in a similar Mid-Atlantic climate. She showed poise in a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 comeback win against Valentini Grammatikopoulou yesterday, and I while I expect a close match today, a bettor would have to take a long look at Chirico at +188 with interest.

Doubles hardware is on the line in the first match up. The doubles final features top seeds Emily Appleton and Quinn Gleason against the Russian Marias–Maria Kononova and Maria Kozyreva. The British/American duo of Appleton and Gleason are slight favorites, but the Russians have been punching above their weight all week.

And nobody asked me, but Texas is the big winner this weekend. Lulu Sun is a former Longhorn, and Maya Joint plans to join the Texas Women’s Tennis team this fall. Although a Lone Star showdown isn’t highly likely, it would be one hell of a showcase for the program.

—S. Fogleman