Danielle Collins plays two matches in one day and extends her match win streak to ten

Danielle Collins (photo by Daniel Ward)

It was a busy day for Miami champion Danielle Collins. She had to play two singles matches at the Credit One Charleston Open because most of yesterday's play was rained out. This morning, Collins played her second round match against defending champion and 2nd seed Ons Jabeur, and won it, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3. It was one of those matches in which the crowd was more or less cheering for both players; Charleston fans are very big on Collins, but they also have strong positive feelings for Jabeur.

After the match, Jabeur said: "I think it was up-and-down match. I mean, it's tough to play players that have confidence, and Danielle is playing really good. I wish I could get the win today, but I feel like already taking a set from her was a good start....It's obviously sometimes very, very difficult when she returns very well. You don't know if you need to hit hard the ball or you need to make more serves in. And sometimes it's really frustrating when you think you serve really well and she has a good return."

This evening, Collins took out 2016 champion Sloane Stephens, 6-2, 6-2, and advanced to the quarterfinals. In the first round, Collins defeated Paula Badosa.

In other "catch up" second round play, wild card (and 5th seed) Beatriz Haddad Maia defeated Caroline Dolehide, Elise Mertens defeated Varvara Gracheva, Elina Svitolina defeated Daria Saville, and Sloane Stephens defeated Leylah Fernandez for the first time.

Veronika Kudermetova (photo by Daniel Ward)

In the remaining round of 16 matches, top seed Jessica Pegula defeated Magda Linette, Victoria Azarenka defeated Taylor Townsend, 3rd seed Maria Sakkari defeated lucky loser Astra Sharma, and Daria Kasatkina defeated Anhelina Kalinina. 2021 champion Veronika Kudermetova defeated Beatriz Haddad Maia, and Elise Mertens defeated Elina Svitolina. 

Jaqueline Cristian (photo by Daniel Ward)

Local favorite Emma Navarro lost to Jaqueline Cristian, who had already defeated 2019 champion Madison Keys. Cristian defeated Navarro 6-3, 5-7, 6-1; the match lasted almost two and a half hours. It should be noted that Cristian had a first serve win percentage of 74.

Cristian, who is ranked number 83 in the world, has reached only one other clay court quarterfinal--Palermo, in 2021.

Here is the quarterfinal singles draw:

Jessica Pegula (1) vs. Victoria Azaarenka (12)
Daria Kasatkina (4) vs. Jaqueline Cristian
Veronika Kudermetova (9) vs. Maria Sakkari (3)
Elise Mertens (11) vs. Danielle Collins