The quarterfinals in Charleston ended up with victories of all the four tournament's top seeds. Weekend's action in South Carolina looks to be really exciting, as semifinal's line-up contain the world's number 3 - Jessica Pegula, both last year's finalists - Belinda Bencic and Ons Jabeur, and previous Charleston's champ from 2017 - Daria Kasatkina.
Pegula prevailed in the most exciting quarters match-up on paper, defeating Paula Badosa 6-3 7-6(6). The Spaniard is on the good way back to form after this year's health issues and this battle had no clear favorite regarding pre-match odds. As expected, it was a consistent battle staying on the high level. Pegula occured to be better by margin in both sets. First set was decided by just one break. The American was leading in second one from the start, but did not manage to serve out the win in 10th game, as Badosa leveled the score by earning her only one break this evening. Tiebreak was an intense battle, where Pegula won 8-6 after converting her second matchpoint. All the match delivered just 4 breakpoints in general.
Tournament's top seed sets up the intriguing semifinal match-up against current title holder. Belinda Bencic, who won in Charleston last year, had advanced to semifinals after comfortable 6-3 6-3 win over Ekaterina Alexandrova. First set was quite a shaky one, as only 3 out of 9 games ended up won by the serving player. It was quite a horrid serving performance from Alexandrova, who lost 5 out of 6 first seving games, not only being defeated in first set, but also trailing 0-3 after start of second set. Bencic could even gain another break in 4th game, but Alexandrova held after 6 deuces, defending two breakpoints. No more breaks appeared till the end, as Bencic score a statement win, being unbeatable this afternoon. She produced 12 breakpoints while facing just 2 on her side.
Ons Jabeur advanced into semis after just 41 minutes spent on court, as her opponent Anna Kalinskaya withdrew during the score 6-0 4-1. It was a beatdown until the Russian called up the medical time-out, which decided about her pulling out from this match. Jabeur was winning all the games pretty quick, but one of the reason for that was a bad feeling of Kalinskaya, who needed to withdraw due to a high blood pressure. Jabeur's semifinals opponent needed to put much more effort, as Daria Kasatkina needed 2,5 hours to defeat Madison Keys 6-7(5) 6-4 6-2. The world's number 8 lives the redemption week in Charleston after miserable start of this year. The 2017 champion from there likes to play in Charleston a lot, as she fought a great comeback victory today. Kasatkina lost first set and was pretty close to be out from the tournament while losing 3-4 with a break gap in second set. The Russian managed to break her opponent two times in a row, forcing a decider where she gave no chances for the American. Kasatkina was dominant force in general, as she produced 24 breakpoints and broke Keys as many as 10 times.
