{"id":13224,"date":"2019-04-04T23:07:52","date_gmt":"2019-04-05T03:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=13224"},"modified":"2019-04-04T23:07:52","modified_gmt":"2019-04-05T03:07:52","slug":"wta-charleston-quarterfinal-predictions-including-sloane-stephens-vs-madison-keys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2019\/04\/04\/wta-charleston-quarterfinal-predictions-including-sloane-stephens-vs-madison-keys\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA Charleston Quarterfinal Predictions including Sloane Stephens vs Madison Keys"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Day 4 brought a couple of surprise moments, most notably the ousting of defending champion Kiki Bertens. Sloane Stephens and Caroline Wozniacki had to play through tough three-set matches to make their way into the quarterfinals. Relative unknown Jessica Pegula nearly reached her first WTA quarterfinal. But Petra Martic found her way to a win.<\/p>\n<p>So, now who will we see reach the semis?<\/p>\n<h2>WTA Charleston Quarterfinal Predictions<\/h2>\n<h4><strong>Belinda Bencic vs Petra Martic<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head to head:\u00a0<\/strong>No history<\/p>\n<p>Petra Martic is enjoying a solid run in Charleston&#8211;in spite of her true weapon, the serve, going askew for lengthy periods. Martic keeps finding the way to the win, even when pushed to three sets. Now the Croat finds herself in her first quarterfinal of 2019. I\u2019d give her a fighting chance against anyone other than Belinda Bencic. The Swiss has yet to drop a set in Charleston, showing why she&#8217;s one of the hottest players on tour. Not much is going wrong with the Bencic game right now, and it would be unwise to bet against her.<\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction:\u00a0Bencic in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"aX0ypyDVSWpMAcJXhzMFMw\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1137641649\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'aX0ypyDVSWpMAcJXhzMFMw',sig:'RjfdgpOpvpEJHyySmMLBxq-7OrFsrTHWGEgLRmJFhCM=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1137641649',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Monica Puig vs Danielle Collins<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head to head:\u00a0 <\/strong>Puig 1-1 Collins<\/p>\n<p>Looks like the hard-hitting American is continuing her stellar start to 2019. Danielle Collins has reached the quarterfinals in Charleston in her maiden appearance. Moving through her draw, Collins hasn\u2019t dropped a set yet. In the third round, Kaia Kanepi pushed her close to a first set loss, forcing a tiebreak. But the Virginia alum quickly claimed it, allowing Kanepi just one point. The second set was a routine Danielle Collins victory. However, no easy outing is in store when she faces off against Monica Puig.<\/p>\n<p>The former Olympic Gold Medalist is breaking through her slump, regaining her form. And, it showed in her straight sets win over the number three seed Aryna Sabalenka. Perhaps Puig\u2019s biggest weapon is her return of serve. Strong, solid, with a good read on the ball, she&#8217;s creating break point opportunities in every set. If she was unbothered by Sabalenka\u2019s power and pace, Collins\u2019 power certainly won\u2019t faze the Puerto Rican. I think there\u2019ll be more than a few momentum shifts. But if she brings her A Game, Puig should take it in three.<\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction:\u00a0Puig in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"WJm5V59tTVlC3x8GuMwIyw\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1137165327\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'WJm5V59tTVlC3x8GuMwIyw',sig:'mHFeHEF9n-bfrVeQofRs7mOAtSFXeTYSEtH6EUjwIJQ=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1137165327',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Maria Sakkari vs Caroline Wozniacki<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head to head:\u00a0 <\/strong>Sakkari 1-0 Wozniacki<\/p>\n<p>After surviving a tight tiebreak to take the first set, Maria Sakkari played with the confidence of someone on a quest to a title. Defending Charleston champion Kiki Bertens went down in straight sets against Sakkari\u2019s fearless ball striking. And, now here she is in the quarterfinals facing Caroline Wozniacki. Sakkari should be feeling pretty confident, holding a straight sets win over Wozniacki in their head to head.<\/p>\n<p>Wozniacki\u2019s win against Romanian Mihaela Buzarnescu was anything but straightforward. It took three sets comprised of contentious games before the Dane came through. Sakkari has to be feeling good, believing that this tournament is hers. I think we\u2019re seeing the start of something great for Sakkari.<\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction:\u00a0Sakkari in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"y8Pi3gVoRY9XdheD_nnDzA\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1137420250\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'y8Pi3gVoRY9XdheD_nnDzA',sig:'COpKp6rMmHq9r47Rq0v5wHwJF8hwu38uvUoVYL2UgOs=',w:'423px',h:'594px',items:'1137420250',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Madison Keys vs Sloane Stephens<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head to head:\u00a0 <\/strong>Keys 0-3 Stephens<\/p>\n<p>The Americans have done battle before, always ending in Sloane Stephens\u2019 favor. However, Stephens&#8217; path has been anything but easy. Opening her run against Sara Sorribes Tormo required nearly two hours and two tiebreak sets. And it looked like Sloane would be exited courtesy of Australian Ajla Tomljanovic, but something reignited the fighter we\u2019ve always known Stephens to be. After dropping the first set, Stephens put her head down and got to work, finally finding a way through Tomjlianovic\u2019s lightning fast, clean hitting. And, she did it while exuding positivity, even when Tomjlianovic found success in the most impossible of shots. It seems as though a switch has flipped and the former Slam champion version of Stephens has returned.<\/p>\n<p>Madison Keys hasn\u2019t looked as sharp as you\u2019d expect. The #8 seed struggled against the unconventional Tatjana Maria in her opening match. Yet she fought through to a win. Both her nerves and her game improved when she faced Jelena Ostapenko, finding her win in straight sets.\u00a0To move on to the semis, Keys will have to eliminate Charleston\u2019s 2017 titleholder. Is it a rivalry? Well, you really can\u2019t call it a that when Sloane Stephens has handily won each of their three meetings. In fact, Keys has never claimed more than four games in a set against her compatriot. Anticipate a straight sets win for Stephens.<\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction:\u00a0Stephens in 2<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Day 4 brought a couple of surprise moments, most notably the ousting of defending champion Kiki Bertens. Sloane Stephens and Caroline Wozniacki had to play through tough three-set matches to make their way into the quarterfinals. Relative unknown Jessica Pegula nearly reached her first WTA quarterfinal. But Petra Martic found her way to a win. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1838,"featured_media":11444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5200,266,46,5261,2773,63,305,461,2507,463,2369,5249],"class_list":["post-13224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2019-volvo-car-open","tag-belinda-bencic","tag-caroline-wozniacki","tag-charleston-open-predictions","tag-danielle-collins","tag-madison-keys","tag-maria-sakkari","tag-monica-puig","tag-petra-martic","tag-sloane-stephens","tag-tennis-predictions","tag-wta-charleston-open"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1838"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}