The WTA Tour’s Charleston Open continues on Thursday 4 April as Ons Jabeur faces Danielle Collins and Leylah Fernandez squares off against Sloane Stephens. Damien Kayat shares his betting preview.
2024 WTA Tour – WTA 500
Charleston Open
LTP-Daniel Island,
Selected Ro32 Matches – Thursday 4 April
Ons Jabeur 19/10 | Danielle Collins 4/10
What a difference a year makes. Ons Jabeur would ordinarily be going into this clash against Danielle Collins as the overwhelming favourite (especially on clay). But their current career trajectories tell a different story.
Three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur arrives in South Carolina on the back of four consecutive defeats. The Tunisian second seed has been battling a recurring knee injury that has left her visibly shaken (watching her emotional breakdown at the Abu Dhabi Open was particularly painful to behold).
She is 2-5 for the year and is desperately in need of some form as she embarks on the tour’s annual clay-court odyssey. She will be hoping that her positive experiences in this event can help reinvigorate her flagging campaign.
Jabeur reached the final here in 2022 before capturing the title last year. Her crafty, unorthodox style perfectly complements these surfaces and she will be hoping to outfox the more gung-ho American. Jabeur has proven to be an arch-competitor on clay, reaching WTA 1000 finals in Madrid and Rome. Can she overcome the Collins avalanche this week?
It’s been pretty incredible to watch Danielle Collins’ transition from queen of grunt to the current ‘It’ girl of women’s tennis. The former Aussie Open finalist is set to retire at the end of the season due to the myriad of physical ailments that have plagued her throughout her career.
And I think that has liberated the American tremendously. She seems to be playing without fear and seems intent on squeezing the juice out of every individual moment. She won her maiden WTA 1000 title in Miami last week, holding off the imperious Elena Rybakina in the final.
Collins was clutch in the game-defining moments, saving 10 of 11 break-points against the aggressive Kazakh. And she has now extended her winning streak to eight matches, brushing aside the similarly injury-plagued Paula Badosa with relative ease.
She was brutal on Badosa’s tentative serve, winning a staggering 71% of her second serve return points. Though by no means her preferred surface, Collins has nonetheless picked up some respectable performances on clay in her career.
She won her maiden WTA title at the 2021 Palermo Ladies Open and she also boasts a Roland Garros quarter-final run to her name. She is swinging from the hip at present and she will take some stopping this week (regardless of the surface).
Verdict: Collins to win in straight sets 94/100
Collins leads the head-to-head 2-1, comfortably seeing off the Tunisian when they last met at the 2022 Miami Open. This will simply be a bridge too far for the beleaguered Jabeur. Collins looked relentless against Badosa, serving eight aces and pouncing on anything remotely short.
Collins is riding the crest of a massive emotional wave while Jabeur doesn’t look physically capable of really implementing her multi-faceted game.
Leylah Fernandez 89/100 | Sloane Stephens 89/100
This could be one for the purists, as aggressive Canadian Leylah Fernandez takes on the notoriously cagey Sloane Stephens. The Canadian lefty rose to prominence with her unheralded run to the 2021 US Open final.
She may not have scaled those heights again but her career has certainly not gone off the rails in the same manner as 2021 champion Emma Radacanu. She actually enjoyed a pretty strong end to her 2023 campaign.
She won a third career title at the Hong Kong Open before losing to Siniakova in the Jiangxi semi-finals. She then produced arguably her greatest performance since Flushing Meadows, winning four singles matches and a doubles match as she helped propel Canada to victory in the Billie Jean King Cup.
She hasn’t really been able to translate that into a positive start to this year’s campaign (she comes into this match with a middling 7-6 record for the year). The former French Open quarter-finalist loves to dictate proceedings but she could afford to perhaps rein in that aggression from time to time. She utilises a variety of slices and she should be well suited to these surfaces.
Oft-criticized for a supposed laissez-faire approach to tennis, 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens is always a dangerous lurker who has to be respected. And I think clay is probably where she remains the most dangerous.
She has been astonishingly consistent at Roland Garros, reaching the fourth round or better in nine of her twelve Paris appearances (memorably finishing runner-up in 2018). She won this title back in 2016 and I just think her skillset is best suited to this surface.
She plays an extremely defence-orientated game that hinges on athleticism and courtcraft. And she just swept the ascendant Magdelena Frech off the court in emphatic style. The American hit 16 winners to just 13 unforced errors in a textbook Stephens display.
She frustrated Frech with her indefatigable baseline work, forcing the Pole into 18 unforced errors. That victory takes her 2024 record to a symmetrical 8-8. Could she emulate compatriot Danielle Collins and produce an unexpected title charge this week?
Verdict: Stephens to win in three sets 36/10
Fernandez leads their head-to-head rivalry 3-0. Stephens has actually amusingly referred to the Canadian as her archnemesis. However, this will be their first-ever meeting on clay. And that’s where I give Stephens the edge.
Fernandez is a little too one-dimensional on this surface and I think Stephens could exploit that. The American looked inspired against Frech and she just seems a little more motivated than usual this week.
