Our Tennis guru previews selected quarter-final fixtures from the WTA Tour's Volvo Car Open which takes place at the Family Circle Tennis Centre.
WTA Tour 2019 | WTA Premier
Volvo Car Open (Charleston Open)
Family Circle Tennis Centre, Charleston, South Carolina, (Outdoor Clay-court)
Selected Quarterfinals - 5 April 2019
Belinda Bencic (9) (4/10) vs Petra Martic (16) (7/4)
Belinda Bencic is one of the hottest players on the planet currently, with 15 wins in her last 17 matches. The former top 10 player is slowly inching her way back towards the upper echelons of women’s tennis. She is yet to drop a set this week, though she has played admittedly weak opponents. The winner of two consecutive Hopman Cups, Bencic no doubt has used that team confidence as a platform for greater individual success. She reached the semi-finals in Auckland prior to a noble 3rd round showing at Melbourne. But it has been her post-slam form that has catapulted her back into global reckoning. She won an epic Dubai title and followed that up with a wondrous semi-final showing at Indian Wells, helping to debunk the myth that Dubai was an outlier.
Croatian Petra Martic has taking a more circuitous route to the final, requiring three sets twice thus far this week. The 28-year-old is coming off of a positive 2018, where she reached a career-high ranking of 34, including a run to a WTA final: she lost to Anastajia Sevatsova on the clay-courts in Bucharest last year. She started the year with a positive run to the 3rd round in Melbourne, with victories over Heather Watson and Vondrousova on the way. But her year cooled off big time and she will be hoping that her favoured clay-courts assist her this week. She has twice reached the 4th round of Roland Garros, including as recently as 2017. Looking at her ITF Finals record, she has reached four clay-court finals, including three victories. She has actually owned her last 7 clay-court matches from 8.
This will be their first ever meeting, which always leads me to believe a surprise could be in store. Martic is an accomplished clay-court player and should prove a worthy opponent to the belligerent Bencic. However, Bencic has been in sensational form and looks to be blowing away lower rated players at present. A straight sets victory for the powerful Bencic seems the only logical way to go at 5/4.
Maria Sakkari (15) (29/20) vs Caroline Wozniacki (5) (5/10)
The career of former World Number One Caroline Wozniacki has always been defined by fairly dramatic ebbs and flows. Just look at 2018. She claimed her maiden Slam in Melbourne prior to victories at Eastbourne and China. But elsewhere her season stuttered badly, with a plethora of upset defeats along the way. Her 2019 has proved underwhelming, with injuries and a viral illness scuppering her progress thus far. In fact, she is yet to reach a quarter-final thus far this year, with a disappointing third round defence of her Aussie Open crown. But she returns to an event that has brought her great joy. The 2009 finalist ultimately won this event back in 2011. There have been several high profile early exits and she will be hoping to avoid that ignominy here.
Maria Sakkari continues a line of Greek tennis proficiency, with her mother Angeliki Kanellopoulou also being a top 50 player in her day. The 28-year-old has been something of a journeywoman on the tour, though there have been some encouraging development of late. She reached her first ever WTA final last season, ultimately losing in the final of the Silicon Valley Classic. Perhaps more pertinent for this match is her clay-court credential. She reached the third round of last season’s French Open and can draw from a wealth of ITF clay-court success. She has competed in no less than 10 ITF finals on the sticky surface. This should no doubt give her some solace, especially when you consider that Wozniacki much prefers the harder, faster surfaces.
Another feather in the Greek’s bow is their head-to-head record. Sakkari actually currently holds the edge, beating Wozniacki in their only encounter: Sakkari defeated Woznaicki in straight sets at the 2017 Wuhan event. Woznaicki has been on the end of some notable upsets of late and this has banana peel written all over it.
Written by Damien Kayat for Hollywoodbets.
from Hollywoodbets Sports Blog http://bit.ly/2Ughpta
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