Stories, comments and photos by Will A. Davis
Gallagher’s Travels is proud to be one of the media outlets chosen to cover the 41-st Family Circle women’s tennis tournament in Charleston, South Carolina March 30 – April 7.
This is the largest women’s only tennis event in the world and will feature five past champions including Serena Williams, Sam Stosur, Caroline Wozniacki, Jelena Jankovic and Venus Williams.
Young American players will be looking to make their mark including Sloane Stevens, Christina McHale and Melanie Oudin to mention just a few.
We will also be doing daily coverage of many of the off court events including the outstanding programs designed for the whole family.
Scroll down to follow the daily stories and photos from the Family Circle Cup !
Day 1-Saturday March 30
Day-2-Sunday March 31- Happy Easter !
Play began today at 1 p.m. with the continuation of the qualifying rounds. The passion of the players to reach the main draw is evident in the close scores and excitement in many of today’s matches.
An Easter Egg Hunt with over 3000 “hidden” eggs was a fun event for the children and adults.
Qualifying rounds will continue Monday morning and first round play will begin on the Billie Jean King Court, the Althea Gibson Court and Courts 3,4,and 5.
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Day 3- Monday April 1 (No fooling!)
Titanic catches were the rule of the day as three set struggles and tiebreakers were in abundance. A beautiful day gave it’s wings to the First Round of the tournament and Julie Hampton and Olga Govortsova did not disappoint with an epic two and one half hour battle with Govortsova taking the match.
Other three set battles were staged by Francesca Schiavone and Silvia Soler-Espinoza, Jessica Pegula and Garbine Muguruza, as well as Vavara Lepchenko and Chistine McHale. #12 Seed Lepchenko as well as Soler-Espinoza and Pegula were the victors and moved ahead to the next round.
#1 Seed Serena Williams will step up to the line on Tuesday on the Billie Jean King Center Court as well as top ten seeds Jelena Jankovic, Mona Barthel and Sloane Stevens. Doubles matches also start tomorrow.
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Day 4 -Tuesday April 2
The Jankovic/Oudin match is now into it’s third and decisive set in a classic see-saw stuggle.
Jankovic vs Oudin match Tuesday morning .
Day 5- Wednesday April 3
The most interesting event of the day has been the wheel chair tennis. Incredible movement and talent. Talk about dedication ! See pics added. Caroline Wozniacki, and Jelena Jankovic moved forward.
Second matches of the day have begun for some with Venus Williams facing off with Madison Keys also the second go round for Keys today, now the only American remaining form the “Young Americans” group which so impressed tennis fans at this Family Circle Cup
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Day 8- Saturday April 6
Stefanie Voegele’s upset of #2 Seed Caroline Wozniacki has set up a dream match for the FCC event as today #1 Seed Serena Williams the top ranked player in the world will meet her “big” sister Venus in one of the two semi-final matches today. It is their first on court meeting since 2009. Venus Williams has been battling a auto imuune problem for the last year or so and it might tell in the match as she had to play two matches on Friday because of the rain outs on Thursday. Serena also had to play back to back matches on Friday. The other semi final match is between the aforementioned Voegele and the #9 Seed here Jelena Jankovic who has been playing very well all week.
Semi- Finalists Slide Show Serena vs Venus
Day 9-Sunday April 7
Serena Wins Her Second Straight Family Circle Cup Championship !