Down to four in Charleston

l to r: Petra Martic, Madison Keys, Caroline Wozniacki, Monica Puig (photos by Daniel Ward)

Only one quarterfinal match went to three sets in today's Volvo Car Open, but each match was interesting in its own way.

In today's first match, a very steady and in-form Petra Martic upset 9th seed Belinda Bencic. Martic, the tournament's 16th seed, defeated Bencic 6-3, 6-4. Martic posted first and second serve win percentages of 68 and 74, respectively, and she wasn't broken throughout the match.

The second match featured 5th seed Caroline Wozniacki and 15th seed Maria Sakkari. Wozniacki defeated Sakkari 6-2, 6-2. The Dane won in Charleston in 2011. Should she win this year, she would break Martina Navratilova's record of having the longest time span (seven years) between Charleston title wins.

The third match was a much-anticipated contest between 8th seed (and 2015 runner-up) Madison Keys and the tournament's top seed, Sloane Stephens, who was also the 2016 champion. They had played each other three times before, and Stephens had won all of those matches. Today's first set featured constantly shifting momentum, right through the tiebreak, which was ultimately won by Keys, 8-6. Keys went on to win the match, 7-6, 4-6, 6-2.

Monica Puig and Danielle Collins contested the night match, and--for the first time since she came to Charleston--Collins lost her edge. Puig brought her impressive backhand and some very steady nerves, and dominated Collins from start to finish, defeating her 6-3, 6-2.

In tomorrow's semifinals, Puig will play Keys, and Martic will play Wozniacki. Puig and Keys have played each four times; each woman has won two matches. They have played twice on clay, and have split those wins, also. Martic and Wozniacki have played each other five times, and Wozniacki has won all five matches. They have never played each other on clay.

So far this season, there have been fourteen tournaments and fourteen different champions. The title winners in both Charleston and Monterrey will guarantee that the tour will have sixteen different champions.

In today's doubles quarterfinals, the unseeded team of Irina Khromacheva and Veronika Kudermetova defeated 3rd seeds Raquel Atawo and Katarina Srebotnik 1-6, 6-3, 10-5. Also, 2nd seeds Lucie Hradecka and Andreja Klepac defeated wild cards Chloe Beck and Emma Navarro 6-3, 6-2.