Historic Day of Tennis Set for Sunday with Semifinals, Finals on Tap

Sunday is set to be a busy day of tennis. You can say that several times over.

After storms wiped out the majority of Saturday’s Volvo Car Open and men’s legends play, the schedule is chock full of world-class action from morning until the early evening, when we’ll crown three new Charleston champions once again.

MORE: See Sunday’s Full Schedule | Updated Draws  

The men of the Invesco Legends Charleston event will kick things off at 8am, followed by WTA doubles and singles semifinal and final play.

It’s a big day no matter how you paint it, but in particular for the four singles players who remain in Madison Keys, Julia Goerges, Kiki Bertens and Anastasija Sevastova.

All are looking for their first title here, Keys the lone among them who has been this far in Charleston – a finalist in 2015.

Goerges and Sevastova will play from a 4-4 first set tie from Saturday, while Keys-Bertens as well as the second doubles semifinal will each start from love-all.

Getting to Know…
American fans will be plenty familiar with Keys, the 23-year-old No. 7 seed who was runner up to Angelique Kerber here in 2015. She was a finalist at the US Open last September and is looking to win her first title since Stanford last summer.

Goerges is the most established of the other three semifinalists, the 29-year-old German having made her top 10 debut this year after three titles in the span of the last few months. The tour veteran is playing some of the best tennis of her career, she says, for simple reasons: She’s healthy and happy off the court.

Goerges’ opponent, Sevastova, is the second Latvian reach the final here in as many years after Jelena Ostapenko made the last two a year ago. She has not dropped a set this week and plays a crafty, all-court type of game that can prove tough to beat for the three other semifinalists, all who play a power-based game.

Bertens, Keys’ foe, is all smiles off the court, but packs plenty of punch on it. The Dutchwoman beat Keys at the French Open two years ago in their only previous meeting and loves playing on the clay herself, having recorded nearly half her career wins on this surface.

Sunday, Funday
Fitness will play a factor on Sunday, as it’s rare for the players – particularly on the singles side – to play two matches in one day.

In doubles, Andreja Klepac and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez await the winner between Kateryna Bondarenko and Aleksandra Krunic against Alla Kudryavtseva and Katarina Srebotnik.

None of the remaining doubles teams have won this title as a pair, but Srebotnik did win here once before – way back in 2008 – alongside then-partner Ai Sugiyama.