Neither rain nor a pair of Grand Slam finalists have dampened Daniel Collins’ spirits so far at the Credit One Charleston Open. The Miami champions won not one, but two games Thursday, extending their undefeated streak to 10 and advancing to their second quarterfinal in Charleston.
Collins ended his winning streak at 17, but still returned to Credit One Stadium with a 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 win over defending champion and second-seeded Ons Jabour in Thursday’s opening match. We kicked off. In the evening session, she defeated fellow American Sloane Stephens 6-2, 6-2.
Stevens previously defeated 14th seed Leila Fernandez, a 2021 U.S. Open finalist, 6-4, 6-4 in the postponed second round for the first time in four career matches. The American pair, as well as No. 7 seed Elina Svitolina and No. 11 seed Elise Mertens, all win second-round matches in the day’s session to catch up with the rest of the draw after more than six hours of matches. There was a need. Those games were postponed due to rain on Wednesday.
Collins will next face Mertens, who earlier defeated France’s Varvara Gracheva in three sets and won 6-4, 6-1, surpassing Svitolina for the third time in seven tries and the first time since 2021.
“Obviously it’s not easy to play two games in a row, but it’s very rewarding to be able to do it against two incredibly high-level players in the top six.”
After beating Stevens, Collins said, “He’s a player and he’s a Grand Slam champion.” “So I can take this and use it as confidence going forward.
“Today is a really rewarding day for me, especially since I have had some health and physical issues in the past.”
Kudermetova and Sakkari set for first clay match in 5 years
Also advancing to the quarterfinals with straight-set wins on Thursday night are No. 3 seed Maria Sakkari and 2021 Charleston champion and No. 9 seed Veronika Kudermetova, who will face off next.
Kudermetova defeated fifth-seeded Beatrice Haddad Maia 7-5, 6-1 despite trailing 4-2 in the first set, while Sakkari lost 10 straight to Australia’s lucky Loser Astra Sharma’s losing streak ended with a score of 6-4, 6-1. Points at a certain stage in the first set.
Kudermetova won her first career singles title on the Hologic WTA Tour in Charleston three years ago, and her second win in this tournament comes after she won the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo last September. This is the first time since then that he has won consecutive games in any tournament. .
Sakkari leads the overall head-to-head match between the two, 3-1, but the quarterfinals will be the first time they have met on clay since Kudermetova won in Istanbul in 2019.
