Caroline Wozniacki had another well-rounded game that advanced her to the fourth round at the US Open. The struggling Dane who has been used to rough outings found herself able to handle Romania’s Monica Niculescu in straight sets 6-3, 6-1 at Arthur Ashe Stadium Friday afternoon on the grounds of Billy Jean King National Tennis Center.
The series between the two has been one sided with the Dane winning all six of their meetings dating back a decade. It’s been three years since they last met with all of the matches ending in straight sets. For the former number one coming off a huge win against Svetlana Kuznetsova, she’d hope that the same pattern against the Romanian would remain and move into the round of 16.
Niculescu hoped to cause trouble for Wozniacki who still showed signs of struggle in her game. The world number 58 came off a near perfect shutout in the second round and would hope to knock out the 74th ranked player if conditions allowed her to do so.
She began with a clean break of the former number one while playing in the sun. Wozniacki struck back with her positioned in the shade giving the indication that both spots on court were to an advantage and a disadvantage. When they switched sides, the pace went to Wozniacki who managed to hold serve standing in the sun and consolidated it with a break in the fifth.
The three-game winning streak came to an end for Wozniacki after a hard fight from the Romanian on serve produced a much-needed victory to cut the margin in half. Wozniacki inched closer to capturing the set with a hard-fought seventh game that went to deuce on her serve. Niculescu pushed herself to stay alive in the set gaining another win in the eighth. As possession went back to the Dane, she got out of trouble on deuce playing the longest game of the match holding in her third set point ending 50 minutes of play.
With the lead in the match, things got slightly easier for Wozniacki going into the second set as she found her groove going on. She easily took a 3-0 run on Niculescu having plenty of the momentum until the Romanian made a stance. She fought for a break in the fourth getting on the board to prevent the runaway.
She made it a difficult task for her strong opponent making her grind out games in the process. The Dane remained lopsided at 4-1 wanting nothing more than put the match away. Wozniacki got to 5-1 adding nerves to Niculescu who had a chance to stay alive. Despite the aggression on serve and the hope of a hawk eye challenge, she couldn’t keep things together for herself ending the match in favor of Wozniacki who cleared the way into the second week of action after 1 hour and 27 minutes.
“She makes it feel like you can’t play tennis,” Wozniacki said of her opponent to ESPN’s Rennae Stubbs. “It’s like you have to mentally prepared and grind out there and it’s not pretty but at the end of the day it’s the result that matters.” Wozniacki will take on the winner between Madison Keys and Naomi Osaka in the fourth round Sunday.
Photo by: Elsa/Getty Images
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