BY JAMES BECK
CHARLESTON, S.C. – Top seed Jessica Pegula has done it again to make the “final four” of the Charleston Open.
But so did No. 2 seed Ons Jabeur, No. 3 Daria Kasatkina and No. 4 Belinda Bencic. That’s right. The top four seeds in the WTA Tour event all advanced on Friday to Saturday’s semifinals on Daniel Island.
The only one that didn’t wrap up the berths in straight set was former champion Kasatkina, a 25-year-old Russian who has climbed back to No. 8 in the world. She wore down another former champion, Madison Keys, 5-7 (5), 6-4, 6-2, with a variety of shots that kept Keys out of synch with her awesome power at times.
PEGULA CAME CLOSE TO THREE AGAIN
Pegula, the world’s No. 3 player who had rallied back from a 4-0 third-set deficit a day earlier to win six straight games against Irina-Camelia Begu, came close to a another third set this time.
But talented Spaniard Paula Badosa helped Pegula out with a pair of mistakes on the last two points of Friday night’s match to allow Pegula to escape with a 6-3, 7-6 (6) victory.
The always patient and under control Pegula was cruising with a 5-3 lead in the second set when Badosa suddenly discovered her game to win three straight games to force Pegula to hold service in the 12th game to force a tiebreaker.
BADOSA ERRED ON THE LAST TWO POINTS
With the score at 6-6 in the 12-point tiebreaker, Badosa went for too much with a forehand and then netted a backhand to end the match.
Pegula had been all business all the way, showing no emotion while committing few errors, playing great defense and stepping inside the court to hit winners. She had won five straight games at 3-3 to finish off the first set and take a 2-0 lead in the second set.
But Badosa was too talented to let Pegula off the hook that easily. The 5-11, 25-year-old was going to lose, but she didn’t want to without a fight.
“She made me earn it in the end,” Pegula said. “The conditions started getting really tricky. I know there’s some rain coming, so I’m glad I was able to get through that, especially in straight sets.”
MATCH ALMOST BLEW AWAY
“I was serving at 1-0 in the second set, and all of a sudden the wind just shifted going this way, and it dropped like 10 degrees,” Pegula said.
“It was crazy. You could just feel it kind of in the air, so I kind of looked at my coach, like okay, I need to hold, because you never know what’s going to happen in the conditions. I was playing really well and it got tricky there.”
Pegula next goes against Bencic, the 26-year-old defending champion who made quick work of Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova for a 6-3, 6-3 victory in the quarterfinals.
Bencic is a solid player who doesn’t waste many strokes or much time, but has all of the shots and seems to control the court with her instincts and excellent movement.
BENCIC TOUGH MATCHUP FOR PEGULA
“Belinda is really tough,” Pegula said. “She’s a really tough matchup for me. I haven’t played her in awhile, but I think I’ve improved a lot since the last time I played her.
“We play kind of similar, hit kind of low flat, take it early, and she tends to kind of feed off my pace and like how I play. She’s obviously very confident right now, defending champ, and it’s going to be really tough.”
Bencic, a 5-9, 26-year-old Swiss player, also has great respect for Pegula’s game.
“I feel like Jess is very consistent. I feel like she does anything with the ball,” Bencic said. “She redirects very well, and you always feel like she’s not even moving, but still she makes it very effortless.”
JABEUR HAD THE EASIEST DAY
Perhaps, the fifth-ranked Jabeur, the 2022 runner-up here as well as a Wimbledon and U.S. Open runner-up, had the easiest time on Friday. Anna Kalinskaya won only one game before taking a 6-0, 4-1 retirement against Jabeur.
Tunisia’s Jabeur will oppose Kasatkina in Saturday’s semifinals. “We’ve (Kasatkina) had a lot of three-setters together. It’s going to be definitely a physical match,” Jabeur said.
“She’s someone that loves clay. She’s someone that her game suits clay a lot. I think the key tomorrow probably will be patience.”
Looking ahead to possibly rainy weather, Jabeur said, “It’s definitely going to be tricky. It depends how it’s going to rain, if it’s the whole day, if you go in and out the whole time. For me, the most important thing, I will try to use the conditions to my benefit.”
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James Beck was the 2003 winner of the USTA National Media Award as the tennis columnist for the Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier newspapers. A 1995 MBA graduate of The Citadel, he can be reached at Jamesbecktennis@gmail.com.
