Caroline Wozniacki had an easy day at the Australian Open Tuesday. Her quick dispatch of Australia’s Arina Rodionova came in a 6-1, 6-2 straight sets win at Hisense Arena on the grounds of Melbourne Park.
Neither had met before in their careers but the first-round weighs heavily in the Dane’s favor. She has been more than ready for the year’s first major after putting in work in both Auckland and Sydney. Despite losing in the quarterfinals of each tournament, she would likely be able to take care of the 27-year-old who also favors being on her home court.
Wozniacki took none of it into account as she dominated out of the gate to a service hold. The Dane took the next two straight making it seem like she would run the table in the set. Rodionova held her off in the fourth gaining her own break of serve to avoid the bagel. Once the former number broke serve, she put her best to take down the Aussie and lead by a commanding 5-1 score. The Dane had everything working for her serving for the set that had her one and done in 23 minutes.
Things turned very interesting to start the second set as both Wozniacki and Rodionova split the first four games with holds of serve. It was something the Dane didn’t see coming but her efforts paid off the break the Australian in the fifth. After gaining the lead, Wozniacki pressed on to take a 5-2 lead with the want to end the match swiftly.
Rodionova didn’t let her do that in the eighth stopping the former number one in her tracks to force deuce. The adversity didn’t stand long as Wozniacki shattered the wall in front of her to capture the advantage and put the match to rest in one hour and six minutes. The Dane only had one double fault while averaging 79 percent on her entire serve scoring 26 winners and only 17 unforced errors. The strong play on court was just too much for Rodionova who couldn’t bring herself to play the pace for long.
While the Aussie supports the remainder of her countrymen and women left in the tournament, Wozniacki moves on to the second round where she’ll face Donna Vekic on
Thursday.
Thursday.
No comments:
Post a Comment