By Erik Gudris / Friday, December 20, 2013

 

Top seed Shelby Rogers eased into the Australian Open Wildcard Playoffs semifinals. Local favorite Victoria Duval overcame injury to book her spot into the final four.

Photo Credit: USTA

The women's event at the Australian Open Wildcard Playoffs in Norcross, Georgia, kicked off with opening round matches on Friday. With many players admitting that this year's event is a level playing field, stakes were high as each tried to get a step closer to a coveted main draw wild card at next month's Grand Slam.

Top seed Shelby Rogers eased into the semifinals with a 6-4, 6-2 win over last minute entrant Sanaz Marand.

Rogers will next face local favorite Victoria Duval, who had a much tougher battle into the final four.

Taking on Maria Sanchez, the 18-year-old Duval found herself down 5-2 in the first set as she had trouble finding her range on the stadium court. But with some help from multiple errors off of Sanchez's racquet, Duval climbed back to 5-all. Duval eventually broke Sanchez again and soon served out the set to love 7-5.

Early in the second set, Duval called a medical time out to have her left knee taped. Though she traded breaks with Sanchez midway through the set, Duval relied on her serve to keep her alive.

After breaking Sanchez again to go up 6-5, Duval soon closed out the tough match 7-5, 7-5.

Duval walked with a visible limp on the way to her press conference afterwards, but stressed that she was ready to play in Saturday's semis. "I definitely had a rough start," Duval said about her match. "I think I was a little nervous too." On why she served so well down the stretch. "My serve was never my weapon. And I've worked really hard to turn it into that. So I was happy I could count on it in the tough times."

Vickery Upsets No. 2 Seed Brengle

The first big upset on the women's side came in the match between No. 2 seed Madison Brengle, who took on Sachia Vickery, the recent 2013 USTA Girls' 18s national champion. Brengle took the first set 6-4. But Vickery, despite being annoyed at several foot fault calls against her, stayed focused enough to take the second set.

Vickery assumed control in the final set and, with a forehand volley winner, sealed the 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 win.

Next up for Vickery is Atlanta native Grace Min. Min defeated Stanford stand out Nicole Gibbs 4-6, 6-4, 7-5.