After a successful opener against Valeria Solovyeva, 1st seed Jelena Jankovic ends her journey being upset by World No. 123 Ana Bogdan, 2-6 5-7. First set brought only 1 hold of serve, by Ana Bogdan. It was utter chaos. The terrible serving performances seemed to have calmed down up until 3-3. Then the match switched back to “holds of return”. Bogdan was again the one to hold her serve, this time for 6-5. Jankovic didn’t manage to motivate herself to hold, and Ana Bogdan was the one going to quarterfinals.
She got lucky with the draw there, and will face the lucky loser Lyudmyla Kichenok. Kichenok came to Florianopolis mainly for the doubles, where she, with her sister Nadia, are No. 1 seeds. However, Kichenok is not to be underestimated, as she beat the 9th seed and defending champion Teliana Pereira in Round 1.
3rd seed, Monica Puig of Puerto Rico, faced Olga Savchuk, another Ukranian player. Savchuk, No. 232 in the World, did not give Puig a hard time in reaching the quarterfinals. The WTA Rising Star has not been broken in the whole match, and faced just 2 break points. With a 6-0 6-4, Puig sealed her 40th win of the year, and is continuing her best season in her career so far.
Puig will face another youngster in the quarterfinals, Naomi Osaka. Osaka, like Puig, was also dominating on the serve, winning 84% of points after first serve, and serving 12 aces in an express win over the qualifier, Montserrat Gonzalez. Osaka beat the No. 2 player from Paraguay 6-3 6-0.
Another WTA Rising Star, Jelena Ostapenko also had an easy time reaching the quarterfinals. The 4th seed made her way past Catalina Pella of Argentine, sister of the more famous Guido Pella. Ostapenko faced just 2 breakpoints in her 6-2 6-3 win.
Ostapenko’s opponent will be, you guessed it, another WTA Rising Star. Timea Babos of Hungary head the easiest win of them all, dropping only one game in her 6-0 6-1 in her win over France’s Alize Lim. Lim was faced with amazing returning from Babos, despite getting 74% of first serves in, she won only 31% of points after 1st serve.
The last quarterfinal will be played between the 2nd seed Irina-Camelia Begu and 7th Nao Hibino. Begu has had an amazing clay season, followed by a grass season where she won only once, and even that was by retirement. Now that she’s back on clay, she seems to be back on track. With a confidence building win over home star Paula Cristina Goncalves, 6-1 6-2, the Romanian should be prepared to face the Hibino.
7th seed Nao Hibino is holding her ground, with straight set wins over Emily Webley-Smith and Victoria Cepede Royg. Hibino is yet to win a match over a Top 30 player in her career, and it won’t get much easier in reaching that milestone, than beating the No. 30 player in the ranking.
It seems that this is where the tournament is starting to heat up, and after the quarterfinals it is truly anyone’s game. It is always great to see the Rising Stars match up in tournaments, as it gives the fans the hints of a starting rivlary that can go on for years, so I recommend to tune into the action in Florianapolis, you won’t be sorry.
