Daria Saville

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Sunday Qualifying Finals Set Up Main Draw Monday at Charleston Open

Posted by Admin on April 1, 2024
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DANIEL ISLAND, SC—Six qualifiers seized their spots in the main draw at the Charleston Open yesterday ahead of the beginning of play today at 11:00 a.m. The marquis matchup saw Daria Saville advance over Heather Watson, 6-3, 6-2. The Australian will face Tamara Korpatsch in Round 1 in what is a favorable draw for Saville. Should she advance, she will become Elina Svitolina’s first opponent of the 2024 Charleston campaign.

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Gabriela Lee mastered Astra Sharma on Court 3 yesterday afternoon in another match that involved improved play by the opponent in the second set. With the 6-2, 6-3 win behind her, Lee will rest up for a match against 19-year-old Ashlyn Kruger tomorrow.

Top qualifying seed Varvara Gracheva did her part to justify by top billing by handling Usue Arconada, 6-2, 6-4, in a match that felt closer than the scoreline. Gracheva doesn’t get a day off–she’ll take on wild card Clervie Ngounoue tonight on Stadium Court.

Also pulling through qualifying was Katie Volynets with a three set comeback win and a date against Arantxa Rus, and Claire Liu with her own three set comeback over Linda Fruhvirtova, setting up a match between the young American and Shelby Rogers tonight. Sachia Vickery thought she’d taken down compatriot McCartney Kessler in qualifying, but they’re both still playing. Vickery moves on to meet Jaqueline Cristian, while lucky loser Kessler faces Caroline Wozniacki on stadium court for what is arguably the match of the day.

—S. Fogleman

Sunshine and Spanish Moss: Charleston Open Qualifiers Set for Sunday Finals

Posted by Admin on March 30, 2024
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Daniel Island, SC—Once again, we find ourselves between the Wando and Cooper Rivers at a majestic tennis stadium with lush surroundings on land that was a private hunting reserve for the Guggenheim family and foundation until 1996. The vibe is new meets old, and sometimes it feels like the whole community is contrived. Here, there is nothing contrived about the level of tennis and newer always meets older in qualifying.

Britain’s Heather Watson, at 31, is shockingly the oldest player in the qualifying field. She raced out to a 6-0 start, before easing past American Alana Smith, 6-0, 6-4. Watson will face Daria Saville tomorrow for a spot in the main draw, which is a marquee qualies matchup akin to a main draw match itself. In fact, the duo have squared off before in a round of 64 in Madrid in 2016 with Saville the victor, 7-5, 6-4.

Saville, the 30-year-old Australian, was a 6-1, 6-2 winner over American Grace Min.

Another Australian, Astra Sharma, bested younger American Jessie Aney, 6-0, 6-2 in the shortest match of the day at 44 minutes. Her quest for the main draw on Sunday will go through fellow 29-year-old Gabriela Lee, who outlasted Japan’s Mai Hontama, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4.

Wild Card Usue Arconada survived a highly competitive straight sets contest over fellow American Elizabeth Mandlik, 7-5, 7-6(5) in a contest that lasted nearly two hours before a capacity crowd on recently enlarged Court 3 stands. The American needs to beat top qualifying seed Varvara Gracheva, who came back from a first set 6-4 loss to prevail over fellow 23-year-old Dalayna Hewitt of the US, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.

The scoreline for 22-year-old Katie Volynets win over Katherine Sebov looked easy at 6-3, 6-2. The match was more competitive than it appeared as there were long points throughout the first and second sets to extend it to an hour and 45 minutes. The winner of Ann Li and Robin Anderson will meet up with Volynets tomorrow.

The big winner of the day for the youth movement was Linda Fruhvirtova with a 7-5, 4-6, 6-0 marathon over Nicole Melichar-Martinez, 30. The 18-year-old phenom will advance to the Charleston big dance with a win tomorrow over Claire Lu.

American McCartney Kessler was also a winner on Saturday, 6-2, 6-1, and will face either Lauen Davis or Sachia Vickery in Round 2.

—S. Fogleman

Finalists Reaching for Greatness at Sunday @CitiOpen Finale

Posted by Admin on August 7, 2022
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Finalists Reaching for Greatness at Sunday Citi Open Finale

Steve Fogleman in Washington

Three finals are on tap at Citi Open in Washington today after somewhat surprising Saturday action brought us to this conclusion. Wild card Nick Kyrgios advanced to today’s final with a 7-6(4), 6-3 takedown of Mikael Ymer of Sweden.

He’s had a good run in Washington but didn’t want to get ahead of himself contemplating a title or two as he and partner Jack Sock advanced to the doubles final.

“Regardless of how tomorrow goes in both finals, I think it’s a hell of an achievement,” he said. “In one week I think to make both finals is pretty special. You know, I’m super excited. It’s been a minute since I have played in a final, Wimbledon final, so, you know, I’m gonna just try and turn it around and get a win tomorrow. I’m just super proud of the work I have put in.”

The Curious Case of Yoshihito Nishioka continues in Washington with consistent deft play. On Saturday night, he came out fast while Rublev was rusty in the first set. The second set saw Rublev give up four breaks of serve to Nishioka and #96 moved on over world #8 Rublev, 6-3, 6-4.

Kaia Kanepi raced out to a 3-0 lead within eight minutes of “Ready, Play!” and she dominated Daria Saville in the first women’s semifinal yesterday, 6-3, 6-1 in 1:13. Saville needed a medical timeout late in the first set and never had a chance to establish any rhythm in the match as Kanepi overpowered her and dominated the pace,

I would expect Kanepi to attempt a similar start today against Liudmila Samsonova. Both of the women’s semifinals were disappointingly uncompetitive yesterday. Samsonova’s semifinal victory was a 6-1, 6-1 exhibition against an out-of-sorts lucky loser Xiyu Wang in 1:07. Wang was the only women’s semifinalist who had not yet played a match on Stadium court and it showed. Still, it was a very good week for Wang, and for Daria Saville as well.

Here’s to today’s Citi Open champions and I’ll see you in Cincinnati.

Survival of the Fittest at @CitiOpen as Semifinals Set

Posted by Admin on August 6, 2022
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Survival of the Fittest at Citi Open as Semifinals Set

Steve Fogleman in Washington

It’s been a tortuous few days for players and fans as scorching heat and torrential downpours hit the venue in Rock Creek Park, but the survivors have emerged from the wreckage and they are ready to collect their hardware. On Friday, some of these athletes played twice to book their ticket to the weekend action. Victoria Azarenka opened the day with straight sets win over Tereza Martincova, 7-6(7), 6-2 but that win came at a high price: 2 hours and 10 minutes on court. Hours later, she struggled throughout against the rested lucky loser Xiyu Wang as Azarenka fell 6-1, 6-3.

NO PIC NICK: KYRGIOS HURRIES OFF COURT AFTER FIRST FRIDAY WIN

Nick Kyrgios started the day up a set over Reilly Opelka and got out of the match after a solo set on court Friday afternoon, 7-6(1), By contrast, Frances Tiafoe walked on court yesterday down a set before pulling off the comeback win against Botic Va de Zandschulp, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. That extra effort for the win may have been the difference as Kyrgios prevailed in the evening quarterfinal match in three sets, 6-7(5), 7-6(12), 6-2.

Andrey Rublev played his cards right on Friday by spending only 1:42 on court in a straight sets win over Maxime Cressy, 6-4, 7-6(8) and was more than ready for wild card J.J. Wolf, who needed 2:36 to beat Holger Rune, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 earlier in the the day. The result? Rublev cruised to the semifinals with a convincing 6-2, 6-3 drubbing of the Buckeye.

Kaia Kanepi and Daria Saville only had to play one match yesterday and it showed. Saville made mincemeat out of qualifier Rebecca Marino’s game, 6-1, 7-5. The second set was closer as the rain delay required Saville to re-adjust her game. Kanepi’s opponent, Anna Kalinskaya, seemed to wither in the hot conditions and it felt like Kanepi grew stronger with each passing game as the Estonian advanced to the quarterfinals, 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-3. Saville and Kanepi face off this afternoon and the winner will be the odds-on favorite to lift the trophy tomorrow.

Wild Wednesday in Washington Whittles the @CitiOpen Field

Posted by Admin on August 4, 2022
Posted in: ATP, Citi Open, Washington, WTA. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Wild Wednesday in Washington Whittles the Citi Open Field

Steve Fogleman in Washington

If you like upsets, you’d have loved Wednesday in Washington. The Citi Open has been full of surprises and the midweek edition of the tournament found many players on the outside looking in at what could have been.

First up was Emil Ruusuvuori, the scourge of English spell-checkers everywhere. #46 in the world as the tournament began, he shocked #2 seed Hubert Hurkacz 6-4, 7-6(3).

“The first set, I wasn’t returning that well, but at the end of the first set, I was making first serves and that helped me,” he said after the win. The win set him up with a match against Mikael Ymer for a spot in the quarterfinals.

Ymer crashed the party of 15 seed Aslan Karatsev with a turnaround three set victory, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 win on Grandstand court and earned a date with the cutest little kid dressed as Andre Agassi for Halloween. I mean Emil Ruusuvuori.

Yoshihoto Nishikori looked out of gas after his two set victory in the first round but the plucky Japanese player stuck around long enough to empty the tank of 11 seed Alex De Minaur 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-2. He’ll face 7 seed Karen Khachanov at noon and I wouldn’t look past Yoshi if I were De Minaur.

Simona Halep was forced to retire with heat related illness, and Daria Saville upset #1 seed Jessica Pegula, 7-5, 6-4. “You know, I felt like it was really, really important to win the first set,” Saville said. “I thought that, like, for me it would have been really hard to be composed in the second set if I lost the first set. I would have been like, Oh, my God, this is a struggle here.”

Her struggle and Halep’s departure opens a massive hole in the top half of the women’s draw. One of Either Saville, Anna Kalinskaya, Kaia Kanepi or qualifier Rebecca Marino will find themselves in the final this Sunday.

As we head to Quarterfinals Friday, there are four scheduled women’s singles matches to determine the four remaining quarters berths today, and eight matches to whittle the men’s field down to size.