BY JAMES BECK
Emma Navarro played her usual highly concentrated, spectacular game to advance to the round of 16, and Shelby Rogers played her heart out only to lose.
But what about Taylor Townsend!
Townsend upended former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin in the first round, then on Wednesday night she upset 15th-ranked Ekaterina Alexandrova, 7-5, 6-2, to earn a berth in the round of 16 of the Credit One Charleston Open.
VETERAN TOWNSEND HAS AZARENKA NEXT
Although now just 27 years old, Townsend has been around for awhile, even making the round of 16 of the 2019 U.S. Open and round of 32 of the 2014 French Open.
And she’s had her share of success in the ITF tournaments held over the years at LTP Tennis in Mount Pleasant.
She has used her powerful left-handed strokes well enough to spend much of her time ranked in the top 100 over the last decade.
But Townsend could run into serious opposition against two-time former Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka in the round of 16. The 34-year-old Azarenka is talented enough to maybe even win this Credit One Charleston Open.
NAVARRO WINS ON HOME COURT
Navarro, currently ranked 20th in the world and seeded 10th, was near-perfect in a 6-1, 6-1 victory over qualifier Katie Volynets on Wednesday.
Volynets must have been quite surprised by the dominance of Navarro all over the court and in almost every situation in the round of 32 match. Back in the final of the 2019 USTA Billie Jean King girls 18 national championships at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego, Navarro was no match for the then 17-year-old Volynets. Navarro spent most of that match trying to chase down Volynets’ shots to the corners.
A COOL WIN OVER OLD RIVAL
How things have changed in the last five years for these two players. Volynets it now ranked 110th in the world, while Navarro looks like the new star of the WTA Tour. She certainly had that look in Wednesday night’s green-clay bout at the Charleston Open.
It was a knockout from the start for the 22-year-old Navarro, a former NCAA national collegiate champion and the daughter of Credit One Charleston Open owner Ben Navarro.
“I thought I had played her twice, but apparently I was 0 and 3 against her. So definitely (it was) good to get the win tonight,” Navarro said.
“It was cool to be able to get the win on that (stadium) court, my first win on center court here at Credit One.”
KUDERMETOVA ELIMINATES ROGERS
Rogers, Charleston’s other WTA Tour standout, wasn’t so fortunate against 19th-ranked Veronika Kudermetova of Russia, the 2021 winner of this event.
Kudermetova used a big serve and solid ground strokes to stay ahead of Rogers most of the match. Rogers rallied to force a first-set tiebreaker and also rallied late in the second set to keep pressure on Kudermetova, but couldn’t overtake her in a 7-6 (5), 6-4 win by Kudermetova.
“I had a lot of chances tonight . . . very untimely double fault is frustrating,” Rogers said.
““I thought I did some good stuff out there. It’s just you gotta win the right points at the right time, I guess.”
RAINY DAY CREATES TOUGH SCHEDULE
Having to play her first two matches at night probably didn’t help Rogers’ cause, especially after having to wait around all day Wednesday for an all-day rain to pass.
“Today was a long day, for sure, but everybody is dealing with it. We’re used to adapting to different things every week,” Rogers said.
“Tennis is hard. The scheduling is hard. It’s hard to prepare and know when to eat, you know, all those little things. When you’re away from the game, you gotta like figure out how to do all that again. And it can be tricky.”
Prior to her 6-1, 6-1 win over Claire Liu on Monday night, the 31-year-old Rogers had scored only one other victory since undergoing a second knee surgery last July.
“The knee, you know, there’s still good days, bad days,” Rogers said. “I gotta do a little work there still. But overall it’s all right.”
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James Beck was the 2003 winner of the USTA National Media Award for print media. A 1995 MBA graduate of The Citadel, he can be reached at Jamesbecktennis@gmail.com.
