US Open - Women: Wozniacki continues to cruise

Reuters - Mon, 06 Sep 18:36:00 2010

Top seed Caroline Wozniacki elicited a barrel full of errors from former champion Maria Sharapova to post a 6-3 6-4 victory and advance to the quarter-finals of the US Open.

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Wozniacki, runner-up last year to Kim Clijsters, engaged the Russian 14th seed in rallies and patiently waited for her mistakes, which came on ground-strokes from both wings and frequently on serves as well.

Three-times Grand Slam winner Sharapova, the 2006 US Open champion, committed 36 unforced errors including nine double faults, which twice closed service breaks against her.

The victory put the 20-year-old Dane into the quarters against Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia, at 45th the lowest ranked player remaining in the women's draw.

Cibulkova produced an attritional performance to beat former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova out 7-5 7-6(4) earlier in the day.

Eleventh seed Kuznetsova, champion in New York in 2004 and runner-up in 2007, led by a break of serve in both sets but lost her way with 42 unforced errors as Cilbulova reached the US Open quarter-finals for the first time.

Kuznetsova led 4-2 in the first set but world number 45 Cibulkova hit back to win it and then recovered from 3-1 down to lead 5-3 in the second.

Two match points came and went as she was broken when serving for the match at 5-4, but she held her nerve to win the tie-break 7-4 to clinch victory.

US Open Women - 4th round

Estonia's Kaia Kanepi recovered from a horrendous first set to reach her third career Grand Slam quarter-final with a 0-6 7-6(2) 6-1 victory over Belgium's Yanina Wickmayer.

Number 15 seed Wickmayer - a semi-finalist in the tournament last year - wrapped up the first set in a mere 36 minutes as Kanepi, who had knocked out number four seed Jelena Jankovic in the previous round, looked overawed by the occasion.

But the 31st seed steadied her nerve on the resumption of play and slowly clawed her way back into the contest.

She broke Wickmayer twice in the second set and dominated the subsequent tiebreak before wrapping up the final set with relative ease.

Reuters

Comment 23 - 42 of 42

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  1. CON, 'Masha is one French Open from a Career Grand­­ Slam and is only 23.'

    23 is basically half-way of­ a tennis player career. The most talented start winning­ GS at 17. And at 23, they have at least 8 GS.
    Stop­ saying she's ONLY 23. 23 is young in football,­ rugby, golf etc. but not in tennis. 23 in tennis is­ like 30 in football.

    Con, i hope you have learned­ something today.

    From Mbulaiteye, on Wed 8 Sep 8:01

  2. Smoke-Caroline Wozniacki's style of play is a­ replica of­ Martina Hingis' form of tennis.­
    ------------------------------------------------------­ -----------------------------------------------
    She has­ way better serve and more power than Hingis ever­ had.Her serve could become a huge weapon if she­ continues to develop it,and she can hit more winners­ when she decides to.And I think that's one of the­ reason people criticize her game(as Con mentioned)­ because she is capable of hitting more winners and­ dictating more rallies rather then waiting for her­ opponents to lose it and it can be frustrating to­ watch

    Con "The Williamses are nearing the end of­ their­ careers, numerous other top 10 players will be­ dropping­ out and there are very few young ones making­ any­ impression.I see Wozi winning numerous slams in­ the­ near­ future.
    -----------------------------------------------­ ------------------------------------------
    I am afraid­ that Wozniacki's winning many majors could be­ rather the cause of what you mentioned than her­ actually her being incredible good.Williams­ sisters,Henin,Clijsters could play for few more years­ but with all the injuries they've had who knows how­ long they will play and several other top players who­ don't seem to be anywhere near their top form and­ are getting closer to 30(not saying you can't play­ great tennis at that age but not many players of that­ age on tour).

    Con-"Masha's performance­ last­ night was good enough to beat just about anyone­ else­ left in the­ draw"
    --------------------------------------------­ ---------------------------------
    Don't really­ agree with that,Sharapova seemed to be very nervous,her­ serving wasn't as sharp as usual,to many unforced­ errors and her movement around the ball was a bit­ sloppy causing many errors.I think she wasn't­ anywhere near her best,she played far better against­ Serena in Wimbledon,for me this performance was a bit­ disappointing.

    From honeybeecro7, on Wed 8 Sep 7:54

  3. Con Avraam

    I specificly and clearly wrote WTA TROPHY.­ I never mentioned anything about Grand Slams.
    You might­ wanna read my comment again.

    From Chukwuemeka, on Wed 8 Sep 7:38

  4. First i want to congratulate Caroline for the victory­ against Maria. One the other hand if we look at how­ many winners Masha had ( which is not easy against a­ player like Caroline who is running so good ) and how­ many unforced errors she had, we can say the two of­ them , winners/unforced, were not the cause for Maria­ loosing the match. In my opinion ( as a tennis player )­ the diff between Caro and Masha was made by the double­ faults that Masha did in the important moments of each­ set. Just think a little bit if Masha wouldn't have­ made the 3 doubles in the first set she would have had­ a big chance of taking the first set... and once­ Caroline is a set down she would have had to start­ being more aggressive so chances of more unforced­ errors and less on the other side of the net ( Masha­ side) .... So as a conclusion i believe that, realistic­ speaking, Masha lost the Match with the double faults­ that she made in the first as well as in the second­ set. In other words she lost the Match not Caro won­ it.
    Anyhow a good thing is that Masha shows some signs­ of getting back her A game.

    PS: Con i like some of ur­ comments they are realistic, not like other who comment­ just because they are a fans of one of the players.

    From Condition0, on Wed 8 Sep 7:21

  5. Ah great summary Con :)

    From Mathias Hovmark, on Wed 8 Sep 5:39

  6. Well Wozniacki did produce 16 winners last night­ (Sharapova was around 36 I think). In her 6-0 6-0 match­ the other player made an unforced error before a winner­ could be hit :s.

    From Mathias Hovmark, on Wed 8 Sep 5:38

  7. Well the Woz v Shara match was at the least exciting.­ So many break points and so many deuces.

    From Mathias Hovmark, on Wed 8 Sep 5:34

  8. What Wozniacki has improved lately is her offensive­ play, she isn't just playing defensive tennis­ anymore; albeit that is her greatest strengh. She will­ never become a Sharapova or a Serena in terms of power­ play though. If she had played like she did a year ago­ she would have lost to Sharapova(in my opinion :P).

    From Mathias Hovmark, on Wed 8 Sep 5:33

  9. Well Caroline Wozniacki is such a great player I think­ that this time she is 1. in tennis right now(well not­ first in ATP ranking)but her game.,..I dont know Maria­ had too much errors and of course too much double­ faults but she played very well....I was enjoying in­ the match because Maria and Caroline were playing­ really awesome...I love this kind of tennis...but I­ think that Sharapova will not make this mistakes she­ will win this game...But Caroline is lucky­ girl!......Well Sharapova and Wozniacki are great­ players!

    ­ Come on Maria you will rock next­ tournament!

    From alja.mori, on Wed 8 Sep 4:31

  10. Caroline Wozniacki is like a brick wall...but who wants­ to watch a brick wall ?

    From jonathan, on Wed 8 Sep 4:28

  11. I'm looking forward some good play today and really­ hope it won't be a one-way shootout. In the­ men's matches the Ferrer-Verdasco competition­ should be interesting, they're both fighting for­ London. Also I'm curious has Wawrinka something­ left for the Querrey match.

    From PeaceGuard, on Wed 8 Sep 4:14

  12. I said b4 that if Sharapova should get to the QF, then­ it will be a very MIRACLE decedent from heaven and I­ got 8 thumbs down!!!!

    From Jameson, on Wed 8 Sep 2:51

  13. I didn't thought Wozniacki could beat a real good­ player, but now I think she is the one to beat in the­ next couple of years, if you want to say you beat the­ best.

    From Ingo, on Wed 8 Sep 2:46

  14. Congratulation Caroline. It was fantastic.
    I love the­ way you played last night. You looked so strong and­ full of confidence. As Maria Sharapova said that you­ deserve to take the number spot in US Open´10. Wish you­ all the best.

    From blomster05, on Wed 8 Sep 2:32

  15. I find Wozniacki's new "skimpy" uniform­ very unflattering . Besides,nobody wants to see those­ grandma shorts anyway !!

    From LeRoy, on Wed 8 Sep 2:18

  16. sharapova made too many unforced errors but she had­ also more more more winners than wozniacki.because­ wozniacki played deffensive game like the other­ matches.because she not chanced risks.maybe she is­ energic but her shoots not good enough they are not­ strong and fast like Maria's.only she runs from­ left to right from right to left and waits mistakes­ from her opponent.Maria lost her games in critical­ times but her shoots were very effecient in­ wozniacki's games.so we love you Maria and we will­ wait from you trophies in the other tournaments.

    From cchrs40, on Wed 8 Sep 2:08

  17. With this performance, Wozniacki showed real class. She­ will still need to win a big tournament, but one would­ be a fool to not see her as a slam winner in the­ future.

    From evenmike79, on Wed 8 Sep 1:24

  18. "brickwall" Wozzy, veru suiting. Maria,­ Maria, a few years ago she would have gotten a break­ and off she would have gone. confidence level must be­ slipping. because clearly she has no injury. she had a­ good game plan, side to side and she was doing well,­ but she forgot all about it.

    to call Wozzy/Maria a­ great match, you clearly must be losing some grey­ cells. Wozzy is saying she deserves the #1 seed because­ "she works hard and she can handle it"-­ playing like she played was nothing special. remember­ jj, excatly the same way. having said that, she stuck­ to her game plan and demolished Maria. job well­ done

    Maria take heart, you have $17million from Nike.­ if only you could find a sponsor for your racket, maybe­ you could get confidence from that

    From yeah, on Wed 8 Sep 1:18

  19. Caroline played good, but 9 double faults mean more­ than 2 games that Maria gave to her opponent as a­ present: Sharapova can't win against any top player­ if she goes on committing so many double faults and­ unforced errors.
    Anyway, let's give credit to­ Wozniacki and her defensive abilities.

    From Filippo, on Wed 8 Sep 0:16

  20. Con.. Takes more to get me down and nope - didn't­ get to see the Dementieva match so couldn't say if­ it was great - the lenght of it alone doesn't make­ for a great match though. Still... don't think the­ match last night deserves to be called a great­ match...too many faults in it to come under that­ category.... But I agree - lets see some great tennis­ please!

    From Rossi, on Wed 8 Sep 0:16
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