Friday at the Credit One Bank Invitational started with Team Peace leading Team Kindness 8-6 and after five matches on Day 4, each worth two points, Bethanie Mattek-Sands’ team continued the dominance, 14-10.
In the first match of the day, carried over from Thursday, Team Peace’s Ajla Tomljanovic defeated Monica Puig 7-5 6-2.
Afterwards, Amanda Anisimova improved the prospects of Team Kindness, overcoming bad patches against Caroline Dolehide, saving a match point at 7-5 5-3 and winning 25 of the last 28 points en route to a 5-7 7-5 [10-2] victory.
In the only doubles match on Friday, Emma Navarro and Jennifer Brady earned two more points for Team Peace by defeating Shelby Rogers, a Charleston native, and Alison Riske, a new resident of the South Carolina city, 6-2 6-3.
In the following match, Danielle Collins of Team Peace dominated Victoria Azarenka in the first set, as the former world No.1 lost 21 of 24 points while returning at one point. The second set was more competitive, but the American prevailed 6-1 7-5.
Team Kindness was trailing their opponents 14-8 as Sloane Stephens took the court against Eugenie Bouchard in the last match of the night. Bouchard let a 5-2 slip in the second set and failed to force a match tiebreaker by wasting three set points. Stephens broke Bouchard’s serve in a 12-minute game and then prevailed in a standard tiebreaker for a 6-3 7-6(7) victory.
Saturday’s Credit One Bank Invitational schedule will feature four matches, each worth three points. To repeat once more, at the moment, Team Peace leads Team Kindness 14-10. The first team to reach 25 points will win the tournament. Sunday will be doubles-only.
