No. 2 seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia defeated No. 3 seed Daria Kasatkina of Russia 7-5, 7-5 in a semifinal showdown at the Credit One Charleston Open on Saturday in Charleston, S.C.
The other semifinal match was suspended due to rain one hour and 56 minutes in, with No. 4 seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland leading No. 1 seed Jessica Pegula of the U.S. 7-5, 6-6. Pegula was leading the tiebreaker 4-2. That match will resume Sunday before the final.
Should Bencic win, it would create a rematch of last year’s Charleston final, when Bencic defeated Jabeur 6-1, 5-7, 6-4.
On Saturday, Jabeur had a 5-0 edge in aces over Kasatkina, saved 9 of 14 break points and converted 7 of 13 break-point opportunities.
Copa Colsanitas
American 21-year-old Peyton Stearns advanced to her first WTA final by upsetting Russian fourth seed Kamilla Rakhimova 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 in Bogota, Colombia.
Stearns converted 7 of 11 break points and capitalized on her opponent’s nine double faults.
In Sunday’s final, Stearns will face the tournament’s defending champion, No. 2 seed Tatjana Maria of Germany. Maria ended the run of Great Britain’s Francesca Jones, ranked 817th in the world, with a 6-3, 6-4 triumph.
Jones was back in action this year after missing a year due to injury. She was competing in her first tour-level main draw since playing at Wimbledon in 2021.
–Field Level Media