After Friday’s singles quarterfinal matches, just four of the original main draw’s 32 players have a chance to win the eighth ResortQuest Pro Women’s Open at Sea Colony (PWO) – a $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit event – and claim the champion’s share of the purse and ranking points.
Championship weekend begins on Saturday with the singles semifinals and the doubles finals starting at 9 a.m. on resort clay courts 20, 21 and 23.
The top three seeds and a qualifier earned their “Final Four” births with victories on Friday.
No. 1 Grace Min, 24, from Atlanta, faced the most difficult road to the semis, battling to a three-set victory 7-5, 6-7(4), 6-3 over No. 8 Jessica Pegula, 24, of Charleston, S.C.
No. 2 Ashley Kratzer, 19, of Newport Beach, Calif., also needed three sets to dispatch No. 5 Usue Maitane Araconada, 19, of College Park, Md., 6-1, 2-6, 6-2 to advance to back-to-back semifinals at the resort event.
No. 3 Katerina Stewart, 20, of Miami, bested No. 6 Robin Anderson, 25, of Matawan, N.J., 6-0, 7-5 to continue her quest for a second PWO title. Stewart was the 2014 PWO singles champion. No player has ever won the singles title twice.
The lone qualifier and only remaining international player, Romanian Gabriela Tabala, 22, topped USTA wild card Raveena Kinglsey, 19, of Fulton, Md., 6-3, 6-4
The four women whose tournament runs ended in today’s quarterfinals earned $654 and nine ranking points.
In this afternoon’s all-American doubles semifinal round, the second-seeded squad of Quinn Gleason and Sanaz Marand won a hotly-contested two-setter 7-6(2), 7-5 over the tandem of Rasheeda McAdoo and Stewart to advance to Saturday morning’s final. Marand has a PWO doubles title to her credit, winning the crown in 2012 with partner Jacqueline Cako. In the other doubles semi, Anderson and Maegan Manasse earned their title shot with a straight-set victory over Anastasia Nefedova and Jada Robinson 6-2, 6-2
Today’s losing teams each split $359.
In an effort to avoid forecast rain and thunderstorms, all of Saturday’s matches – the two singles semifinals and the doubles final – will start at 9 a.m. The public is invited and admission is free.
Follow the ResortQuest Pro Women's Open at Sea Colony at SeaColonyTennis.net/pwo, on Facebook or on Twitter with hashtag #ProSC
See more tournament photos at https://www.8th-resortquest--1.seacolony.com/page
Singles Quarterfinals: Katerina Stewart(USA)[3] def Robin Anderson (USA)[6] 6-0 7-5 Gabriela Talaba (ROU) def Raveena Kingsley (USA) 6-3 6-4 Grace Min (USA)[1] def Jessica Pegula (USA)[8] 7-5 6-7(4) 6-3 Ashley Kratzer (USA)[2] def Usue Maitane Arconada (USA)[5] 6-1 2-6 6-2
Doubles Semifinals: Robin Anderson (USA)/Maegan Manasse (USA) def Anastasia Nefedova (USA)/Jada Robinson (USA) 6-2 6-2 Quinn Gleason (USA)[2]/Sanaz Marand (USA) def Rasheeda McAdoo (USA)/Katerina Stewart (USA) 7-6(2) 7-5