Caroline Wozniacki’s fatigue played a role in her demise at the Wuhan Open late Thursday night. The recently crowned Pan Pacific Open champion couldn’t defeat Agnieszka Radwanska
Twice in a row leading to her 6-4, 6-2 straight sets loss on centre court at the Optics Valley International Tennis Centre.
The two began their second match in less than a week with this one determining their course in the Wuhan tournament. The Dane took her ninth victory against the Polish power hitter that set her up for her first title of the season. With wins over Samantha Stosur and Katerina Siniakova, the 25-year-old once again had Radwanska in her path with the hope of keeping her series winning streak alive. It’s been three years since the world number four had downed Wozniacki and would play to her opponent’s fatigue in order to win
She was in full control from the start of the set while her opponent across court was having all sorts of trouble with the serve. Wozniacki racked up unforced errors quickly that allowed Radwanska to dictate her path in the set. By the time four games had been recorded, the 26-year-old had one every one of them.
Wozniacki managed to get on the board in the fifth breaking the number three seed before having the trainer come out to take a look at her neck and head during the break. She took a medical timeout to further evaluate the situation and got ready to begin the sixth. The timeout seemed to help her regain some energy and reel in the score. Wozniacki continued to consolidate breaks leaving her a game down after seven.
The Dane served out in the eighth holding off Radwanska by two game points completing the comeback. With the set leveled, Radwanska knew she had to put an end to the sudden rush of her opponent and gain back control to take the set.
She had to deal with three breaks until an unforced error from Wozniacki opened the door for Radwanska to take the lead. With the set at hand Radwanska pushed hard on the break to jump out to three set points winning it on another error from Wozniacki. The set lasted 48 minutes with Radwanska the front runner of the set. Though her stats on both the first and second were below average, Wozniacki’s were worse off scoring 11 percent on shots on the second serve and 15 unforced errors.
Before the second set got underway, Wozniacki took a third session with the trainer as her neck continued to bother her. The conditioning got her back on court to face Radwanska on service. She broke the world number four hoping that it was the start of turning things around. She saw herself broken in the second game before a long battle came together in the third.
The tennis stars got on deuce which extended the duration of the game. They played nearly nine minutes in a draw that wasn’t going to be given up by either. It came down to a bad error from Wozniacki that gave Radwanska the victory and the opening lead of the set. Wozniacki was down but not out and proved her willingness to remain competitive by trailing short of Radwanska. A win in the fifth allowed her to put pressure on her rival force deuce, but the sixth saw her fall to the strong defense of Radwanska who went up 4-2.
The heat was on Wozniacki to build up a strong offense on the break to save the set. She nearly had the win over her opponent but a save of three break points allowed Radwanska to force deuce and capture the fifth win to her name. The Dane served to the Polish star in the eighth as she went for the set win. It became an easy rack up points for the third seed staying tight on the returns.
Radwanska got to three match points where she committed a double fault but kept control to win on her third attempt to win a spot in the quarterfinals after 1 hour and 29 minutes on court. With a late ending to the day, Radwanska would rest up for her quarterfinal match up against Svetlana Kuznetsova on Friday. “We’ve had a lot of matches together and she’s a really strong player,” Radwanska said about her next opponent. “I just hope that I can have the same success that I did here today.”
Photo by: Kevin Lee/Getty Images
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