CHARLESTON: Top-seeded Jessica Pegula lost 10 straight games and trailed 4-0 in the final set before rallying Thursday to reach the Charleston Open quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
Pegula, an American ranked No. 3 in the world, led the top four seeds including No. 4 seed and defending champion Belinda Bencic, into the round of eight in the season\u2019s first clay-court tournament.<\/p>\n
No match was the equal of Pegula\u2019s fight with Irina-Camelia Begu, who was down 4-0 in the second set and two games away from a quick exit until finding her game.<\/p>\n
Begu, the 15th seed, strung together a 10-game win streak to turn things around. Pegula dug in to win the final six game and the exhausting match.<\/p>\n
That was a pretty crazy match,\u201d Pegula said.<\/p>\n
No doubt. Pegula will try to find more consistency against 12th-seeded Paula Badosa, a 6-3, 6-1 winner over Diana Snaider, for a spot in Saturday\u2019s semifinals.<\/p>\n
Others moving on were No. 2 seed Ons Jabeur, No. 3 seed Daria Kasatkina and Bencic, who topped Jabeur to win last year\u2019s event on the Charleston\u2019s green clay.<\/p>\n
Jabeur topped Caroline Dolehide 6-3, 7-5; Kasatkina defeated Bernarda Pera 6-3, 7-6 (3); and Bencic bounced back after losing to opening set to oust Shelby Rogers 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.<\/p>\n
Pegula didn\u2019t totally understand how things went so wrong, then turned right again.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was going through my mind is, \u2018I can\u2019t believe I\u2019ve lost six games in a row, seven games in a row, eight, nine, 10,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t remember the last time I\u2019ve been up like that and consecutively lost like that many games as well,\u201d she continued, \u201cso I was just frustrated, but was able to relax and played a pretty good game (down 4-0 in the third).\u201d<\/p>\n
Pegula thought is she could stop Begu\u2019s winning streak, she could come back. \u201cAnd then it just switched really quickly,\u201d Pegula said.<\/p>\n
Jabeur will take on Anna Kalinskaya, who defeated two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azerenka 6-4, 7-6 (5).<\/p>\n
Jabeur, who reached the finals at Wimbledon and the US Open a season ago, likes where her game is early in the run up to Roland Garros next month.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m getting used to the clay more,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m just … the most important thing (is) I\u2019m enjoying myself on the court and hopefully, it will continue to be better and better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kasatkina will next play past Charleston winner, ninth-seeded Madison Keys, who got past No. 8 seed Magda Linette 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.<\/p>\n
Bencic will face Ekaterina Alexandrova, who defeated Julia Grabher 6-4, 6-2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CHARLESTON: Top-seeded Jessica Pegula lost 10 straight games and trailed 4-0 in the final set before rallying Thursday to reach the Charleston Open quarterfinals. Pegula, an American ranked No. 3 in the world, led the top four seeds including No. 4 seed and defending champion Belinda Bencic, into the round of eight in the season\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324453,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-324439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n