TENNIS – The WTA Charleston, the only tournament to be played on green clay, certainly had the best draw of the week. The top half has suffered some great shocks, the biggest one being Serena Williams’ 4-6 4-6 loss to World No.78 Jana Cepelova in the second round. Joshua Bosco
The Family Circle Cup in Charleston, the only tournament to be played on green clay, certainly had the best draw of the week, with seven Top 20 players and sixteen Top 40s. Ten of them have made it to the third round, the majority (seven) in the bottom half of the draw.
The top half has suffered some great shocks, the biggest one being Serena Williams’ 4-6 4-6 loss to World No.78 Jana Cepelova in the second round. Before this match, Cepelova had never beaten a Top 15 player, but managed to hold her nerve after winning the first 5 games of the match and pull off the biggest win of her career.
Cepelova now plays World No.34 Elena Vesnina for a place in the quarterfinals against either Daniela Hantuchova or Teliana Pereira, a Brazilian ranked No.99 in the world who managed to beat Sorana Cirstea in a third set tiebreak to book herself a spot in the third round.
In the other quarter of the top half Sara Errani and Shuai Peng will battle for the right to meet Belinda Bencic or the WTA highest ranked teenager, Elina Svitolina, in the last eight.
In the bottom half Ajla Tomljanovic is the only non-seeded player to have reached the third round; after beating No.16 seed Shuai Zhang she’s now up against World No.8 Jelena Jankovic for a place in the quarterfinals against Venus Williams or Eugenie Bouchard, who meet for just the second time in their careers.
The other two matches will see Sam Stosur take on Lucie Safarova (with the Czech leading their Head2Head 8-2) and a German derby between Andrea Petkovic and last year’s Wimbledon runner up Sabine Lisicki.
Meanwhile in Monterrey Kimiko Date-Krumm, who eliminated top seed Flavia Pennetta in the first round, will play either Nicole Gibbs or Monica Puig in the quarterfinals.
The other top half quarterfinal will see Jovana Jaksic, who beat Karin Knapp in the first round, take on the winner of Kiick vs Boserup.
In the bottom half No.3 seed Caroline Wozniacki will play Karolina Pliskova for a place in the semi-finals, while No.2 seed Ana Ivanovic will take on Aleksandra Wozniak for a place in the quarterfinals against either Magdalena Rybarikova or Ayumi Morita.
