Round of 16 set in Charleston after a day of thrills and upsets

Caroline Wozniacki (photo by Daniel Ward)

 It was a day of upsets, as four seeded players went out in the second round of the Volvo Car Open. The day began with the 6-4, 6-2 upset of 4th seed Anastasija Sevastova by Jessica Pegula, and shortly thereafter, 7th seed and 2018 finalist Julia Goerges lost to Taylor Townsend. Goerges didn't really seem "present," and made a number of uncharacteristic errors; also, her usually feared serve wasn't working for her.

Kaia Kanepi, who has made a career out of giant-killing, took out 6th seed Elise Mertens with the attention-getting scoreline of 0-6, 6-0, 7-5. And Monica Puig defeated 13th seed Sonya Kenin in straight sets.

Alona Ostapenko (photo by Daniel Ward)

2017 finalist Alona Ostapenko, down 1-5 in the third set against Shelby Rogers, looked as though she would surely be the next seed (10) to fall, but the mercurial Latvian staged a jaw-dropping comeback, winning five straight games and forcing the set to a tiebreak. The tiebreak was close, but toward the end, Ostapenko gathered her champion's mindset and defeated hometown favorite Rogers 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4).

"You really have to fight for every ball," Ostapenko said after the match, "and that's what I did today."

 3rd seed Aryna Sabalenka had to go three sets to beat Kateryna Kozlova; however, 5th seed (and 2011 champion) Caroline Wozniacki prevailed over the tricky Laura Siegemund 6-2, 6-2, in some cases, "pulling a Siegemund" (there were a lot of drop shots).

Danielle Collins (photo by Daniel Ward)

Ajla Tomljanovic, Danielle Collins, Belinda Bencic, Petra Martic, Mihaela Buzarnescu, and Maria Sakkari all won their matches. Sakkari defeated 2014 champion Andrea Petkovic. And in the last singles match of the day, Madison Keys defeated Tatjana Maria. Two players, 2016 champion Sloane Stephens and defending champion Kiki Bertens, won their second round matches yesterday.