Four former VCO champs set to return to Daniel Island
She’s celebrated a milestone 30th birthday in Charleston and savored a championship after a week’s work on green clay. Samantha Stosur has plenty of memories of the Volvo Car Open/Family Circle Cup experience. After all, it’s her favorite tournament and this year marks the 12th time the Australian will compete in the biggest women’s only tournament in North America.
For Stosur, the biggest memory came in 2010 when she steamrolled Vera Zvonareva 6-0, 6-3 in a championship that was so lopsided it took only 52 minutes to complete.
“To be able to do that through the whole two sets and really not let up was a great feeling,” Stosur said in an interview following the match. “It’s always great to be able to play well in any match but to do it in a final where there’s lots of pressure and you want to win that extra little bit more is really, really great.”
Stosur, who turns 34 on March 30, is one of four past champions in the 2018 event. The other champs include Andrea Petkovic (2014), Sloane Stephens (2016) and Daria Kasatkina (2017). Petkovic received a wild card entry into this year’s tournament.
Like most young champions, Stosur used her successful week in Charleston to ignite her career. The victory in Charleston was only her second WTA title of her career and the 2010 season marked the first time Stosur ended the year in the Top 10.
Lately, she has been bothered by injury and she finished 2017 with the No. 41 World ranking. Still, she’s had an amazing run. She won the U.S. Open in 2011, and comes to Charleston with nine WTA singles titles under her belt.
Petkovic, the 2014 Charleston champion, used her impressive week in the Lowcountry to put an exclamation point on a comeback. She was ranked No. 40 in the world at the time, and not only was the Charleston title the biggest of her career, it was her first in three years. The victory pushed her back into the Top 30.
The year 2014 marked Petkovic’s second best season to date. She finished the year ranked No. 14 after winning three singles titles on the WTA Tour. However, she’s won only one singles title since the memorable 2014 season. She ended last year ranked No. 97 in singles.
Stephen’s first title in Charleston (2016) will always be memorable because that’s the year the tournament went from the Family Circle Cup to the Volvo Car Open.
Stephens, the World No. 12, won three titles in 2016 including Charleston, Auckland and Acapulco. She finished the season ranked No. 35 and finished last year at No. 13. She won her first Grand Slam last year, capturing the U.S. Open.
Kasatkina is back to defend her 2017 Volvo Car Open title. The championship in Charleston is her first – and only – WTA singles title.
Kasatkina won in Charleston last year against another teenager, Jelena Ostapenko. Kasatkina has played well this year, reaching the finals at Dubai and Indian Wells to move up to No. 11.