WTA Charleston: Grabber storms into the last 16 in 78 minutes – ÖTV

For Austria’s top women, things run like clockwork in the week leading up to the Billie Jean King Cup crush USA in Delray Beach. Just a day after Sinja Kraus celebrated her first WTA main draw success at the WTA 250 championship in Bogota, Julia Graber reached round 16 of the WTA 500 event in Charleston on Wednesday. And with a really impressive performance: in the second round of the Credit One Charleston Open, which takes place on green sand, the woman from Vorarlberg (WTA 89) finished off the American qualifier Sachia Vickery (WTA 187) in just 78 minutes with 6: 1, 6: 2 down . She managed to avenge the defeat 3: 6, 6: 3, 3: 6 in the only duel between the two in January 2022 at the ITF W60 + H tournament in Traralgon in January 2022. Now the 26-year-old in the US state of South Carolina on Thursday struggles In order to secure a place in the quarter-finals for the first time against 7th-ranked Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova (WTA 17).

The second best career win follows the gala

Just under a year ago, Grabher scored his first victory in a major WTA competition in Istanbul, eventually reaching the quarter-finals in the Turkish capital. This was followed by rounds of 16 in Palermo in July 2022 (as a lucky loser) and Auckland in January 2023. In Charleston, she is now in the WTA round of 16 for the fourth time, and for the first time in a tournament class above 250. In the opening round, she had The Dornbirn native 6:4, 1:6, 6:3 against China’s Shuai Zhang, who is ranked 10th (WTA 28), earned the second best win of her career by ranking on Monday. A party against Vickery ensued two days later. In the first set, Austrian star coach goalkeeper Guenter Bresnik quickly cleared things up, pulling out at 5:0 and only had to fend off a break opportunity at 2:0 – and then three more times when he was served at 5:1. In the second round, Grabher did not allow anything on his serve and set the stage for victory thanks to breaks of 1: 0 and 5: 2.

Things are going well: “A lot of things worked really well today”

“A lot of things worked out really well today,” Graber said happily afterwards on her official Facebook page. “I got into the game really well, played my solid game from the start and had the right recipe ready in the crucial stages. My performance and result give me a lot of self-confidence, and I’m looking forward to the next round.” She can also look forward to the next WTA ranking (at 10 April), because you will probably get better at it. Best placement to date is 82nd. With 55 points won in Charleston to date, she is currently 78th in the live standings. Another success would bring her another 45 points and jump to 72nd place.

Here are all the results from the WTA 500 Championship in Charleston.