Pegula escapes upset try; Clifford resigns as Hornets’ coach
Top-seeded Jessica Pegula survived an upset scare from Amanda Anisimova in an all-American affair in the first round of the Credit One Charleston Open, with Pegula escaping 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) on Tuesday in Charleston, South Carolina.
After dropping the first set and more or less controlling the second, Pegula squandered a 4-2 lead in the third set. She leapt out to a 6-1 lead in the tiebreaker before winning on her third match point.
Anisimova made Pegula work hard by saving 11 of 15 break points and winning more than half of her second return points (21 of 40). But Pegula held firm, and in the third set she won 27 of her 39 service points in order to put away the two-hour, 26-minute match.
No. 3 seed Maria Sakkari of Greece defeated Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova 6-3, 6-3, while
Magda Linette of Poland stormed back for a 0-6, 6-4, 6-3 upset of Ukrainian 13th seed Dayana Yastremska.
Americans Sloane Stephens, Danielle Collins, Taylor Townsend, Ashlyn Krueger and Caroline Dolehide all won their first-round matches; Stephens took just 66 minutes to sweep Poland’s
Magdalena Frech 6-0, 6-2. No. 8 seed Madison Keys fell to Romanian
Jaqueline Cristian in the nightcap, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Elsewhere: Laura Pigossi of Brazil took down fifth seed Nadia Podoroska 6-4, 6-1 in a mere 75 minutes in opening-round action at the Copa Colsanitas Zurich in Bogota, Colombia. Pigossi won an overwhelming 27 of 33 first-serve points
(81.8 percent), saved three of four break points and broke Podoroska’s serve four times. No. 2 seed
Tatjana Maria of Germany took care of Hungary’s
Anna Bondar 6-3, 6-2. Spaniards Sara Sorribes Tormo and Cristina Bucsa, the third and fourth seeds, both advanced in straight sets, while sixth seed Camila Osorio prevailed on home soil by going 8 for 12 in break points converted against Canada’s Marina Stakusic. Other winners included top-seeded Czech
Marie Bouzkova, Julia Riera of Argentina, Romania’s Anca Todoni, American Hailey Baptiste, Italian Sara Errani and
Jule Niemeier and No. 7 seed Laura Siegemund of Germany.
ETC.
Cycling: Next year’s Tour de France will not pass through Paris for the first time due to the 2024 Summer Games taking place in the French capital. With the Paris Olympics starting on July 26, the 111th edition of the world’s biggest cycling race will start a week earlier than usual in Florence, Italy, on June 29. It will end three weeks later in Nice, France, on July 21.
NBA: Charlotte Hornets head coach Steve Clifford is stepping down at the end of the season and will transition to a front office role with the organization, he said Wednesday. Clifford, 62, will coach the team’s final seven games of 2023-24. The team said the search for Clifford’s successor will begin immediately. ESPN reported top targets include Boston’s Charles Lee, Sacramento’s Jordi Fernandez, Miami’s Chris Quinn and Phoenix’s Kevin Young.