By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday September 21, 2023
25-year-old Caroline Dolehide saved four match points to defeat Martina Trevisan for her first career semifinal in Gaudalajara.
Photo Source: Getty
The presence of betting in tennis has conspicuously grown over the last few seasons. It is not at all uncommon to see betting companies as the leading sponsor of tour events, and they are prominently featured as sponsors of the networks that broadcast the sport as well.
Caroline Dolehide entered the Guadalajara draw this week with a ranking of 111, having never won three consecutive matches on tour. Four days – and four impressive victories – later, she’s headed for a career-high ranking and a maiden WTA semifinal.
The Illinois native saved a quartet of match points as she rallied to take out Italy’s Martina Trevisan on Thursday night in Mexico, the 3-6, 7-6(9), 6-3 setting up a semifinal clash with fellow American Sofia Kenin.
Dolehide has won two of her three meetings against Kenin, but the pair have not met since 2017.
Kenin cranked past Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-1 to make it eight wins in her last nine matches earlier on Thursday.
Dolehide battled back from the brink late in the second set, rallying from 5-6, 0-40 down to hold serve before saving another match point at 8-9 down in the second-set tiebreak.
"To be honest, I just had to find a way today to win," Dolehide said on court after her fourth win of the week, and eighth of 2023. "When I was down those match points, I told myself 'Do what you practice,' which my coach tells me every single day of my life.
"I just played with my kick, played with my best shots, and I ended up winning that set. It gave me a lot of confidence going into the third."
Dolehide, who has never finished a season inside the WTA’s Top-100, is slated to rise from 11 to at least 59 in the rankings – she could break the Top-50 for the first time with a semifinal win, and potentially crack the Top-30 with the title.
Dolehide, the 8th WTA player to reach a WTA 1000 semifinal with a ranking outside of the Top 100, has defeated Peyton Stearns, Sachia Vickery, Ekaterina Alexandrova and Trevisan to amass her first four-match winning streak at tour-level.
Garcia Powers Past Azarenka
No.3-seeded Caroline Garcia eased past Victoria Azarenka 6-3, 6-4 to reach the semis in the lower half. She will face either second-seeded Maria Sakkari or Colombian upstart Emiliana Arango.
Garcia improves to 4-1 over the two-time major champion, and reaches her fifth career WTA 1000 semifinal.