Caroline Wozniacki had a lot of work to put in but reached victory at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. The former number one fought hard against not only Viktorija Golubic but a bad call on match point that made her work to finish 6-4, 6-2 on Court 1 at the Dubai tennis stadium Tuesday.
This was a first meeting between the Dane and the Swiss who are in the top 60 but have a long road to get into the line of success. For Wozniacki, that had come in difficult ways as she took time off before going big in Doha last week. She impressed once again with a finals appearance that didn’t produce her first WTA title of the season. She’ll have another chance at one as she hoped to get through the first-round jitters. The 25-year-old Swiss star played a tough first round as it was the first she’s had since the Aussie Open. It clearly left her in a tough spot to match the talents of Wozniacki who carries a heavy offense to introduce to anyone new to her.
She easily carried things in the opening set creating the pace with a hold of serve and the next pair of games against Golubic. The world number 59 tried to get on the board in the fourth with a mistake costing her to play on deuce. She struggled through two breaks but breathed a sigh of relief to end the shutout against the former number one. An important break for the Swiss star had her a game down looking to turn the tables fully in her attempts to level up.
She was denied that chance by Wozniacki who increased her margin of victory and began to easily break through Golubic. As the Dane came to her chance to end the set, the 25-year-old Swiss player had serve of the ball and made it her mission to stay alive in the eighth and threaten to strike out a tie in the set. Some of the rallies went her way scoring key points on the mark that beat Wozniacki to setting up for the return. She had to find a way to bring it all together in the tenth and prevent having to play further on in the set. in a solid response, the former number one dominated the game scoring three break points for the set win that gave her an important hold of the match after 48 minutes.
Improvements had to be made in order to stop Golubic from being a tough competitor further on. She went up 2-0 easily combining strong ground strokes on the rallies before setting up the point winners away from Golubic. She had it under control for a break in the third before the Swiss star made her service mean something in the fourth. Golubic forced deuce but couldn’t hold the control needed to win games. It led to a 4-0 hold for Wozniacki who saw her opponent fight for a break. The 25-year-old forced deuce which took her some time but in the end secured the lone win after five.
Wozniacki climbed to a 5-1 lead hoping that get the set done and over with but a stance from Golubic returned to grant her a second win and control of serve going to the eighth. Mistakes opened the door for the former number one to get it done. She got into a rally on match point that turned into a net front battle. The point was clearly hers but a bad call by officials allowed a shot that clearly landed out to force deuce for Golubic. Wozniacki couldn’t believe what had occurred and received a warner for her rant. She had no choice but to play on and try to get the win by any means.
Golubic made it so hard for Wozniacki as she had good control in the game wanting to stay alive for as long as she could. Her backhand became the most trouble for the Dane as she struggled for some sort of control. It turned into the longest game of the match with Golubic digging deep each time she gained the advantage but lost it on the forehand error. Despite the problem, she was a force for Wozniacki who after another few breaks finally got the win that ended the match ten minutes short of two hours.
Though Wozniacki moved into the third round, she wasn’t yet done speaking her mind about the match point she had rightly secured but was denied of her. Despite being forced to play on, the Dane got more time on the court that she would need for her round of 16 match against Kateryna Bondarenko who advanced on the retirement of Garbine Muguruza in the first set.
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