Victoria Azarenka and Anhelina Kalinina both advanced to the third round at the rain-delayed Charleston Open on Wednesday after their matches were delayed several hours.
Azarenka, seeded 12th at the season’s first clay-court tournament, defeated Elisabetta Cocciaretto 6-1, 6-2 while the 15th-seeded Kalinina ousted past champion Caroline Wozniacki 6-2, 6-3.
Wet weather slowed down progress with players in the first matches not heading to play until evening.
Matches originally scheduled for Wednesday night, including that of defending champion Ons Jabeur against Miami Open winner Danielle Collins, and 2016 Charleston champion Sloane Stephens against Leylah Fernandez, were postponed
WTA Finals
The season-ending WTA Finals will be held in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh from 2024-2026, the women’s tennis body said on Thursday, marking the West Asian country’s latest foray into the sport.
Riyadh will host the season finale — which features the top eight singles players and doubles teams — from November 2-9 and replaces last year’s hosts Cancun, Mexico.
The WTA said its agreement with the Saudi Tennis Federation will offer record prize money of $15.25 million this year with further increases in 2025 and 2026.
“To have a tournament of this magnitude is a defining moment for tennis in Saudi Arabia,” the Saudi sports minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al-Faisal Al-Saud said.
Talk that the event could be shifted to Saudi Arabia had intensified after the men’s ATP Tour said its Next Gen Finals would be held in Jeddah from 2023 to 2027.
