Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova didn’t have her game up to snuff at the China Open Monday night. Caroline Wozniacki was the ultimate winner that won in straight sets 6-2, 6-2 on Centre court at the National Tennis Center in Beijing.
Wozniacki has a grip on the series with the Russian going into their eighth match and second in less than a month’s time. The Dane took down Pavlyuchenkova in the first set in Tokyo and held her back in the second with close fight to win her first title in seven tries this season. Wozniacki had a rough opening round against Wang in which she had to regroup from a loss in tiebreaker to win the final set 6-1. With her grip of going beyond the first round, the 27 year old had her eyes set to continue facing an opponent she had been able to defeat in the past.
Wozniacki took control quickly against the Russian smashing shots across court that she couldn’t get ready for. It produced a 3-0 run for the former number one before Pavlyuchenkova managed to hold in her second service game. Wozniacki went back on the hunt winning another service game that was too much for Pavlyuchenkova to handle. Though she got a second victory with the ball in her hands, it didn’t kill the momentum of the Dane as she coasted in the final two games to take the set outright. It lasted just 31 minutes with Wozniacki well in control winning points on 11 of 13 on the first serve and five of seven on the second.
The second set moved along the same way as the first with Wozniacki up three games quickly that led to another meeting between Pavlyuchenkova and coach Simon Goffin. The two got into a disagreement with one another that didn’t solve the Russian’s issues on court. She showed some anger in her game to avoid a shutout in the set, but as Wozniacki served in the fifth she found the energy to fight off the resurgence and make it 4-1.
Not wanting to have the same result of the first, Pavlyuchenkova held once again that cut the margin in half with fight growing in her. She got into a second draw to deuce with Wozniacki struggling to hold the AD point. After four tries and tricky defense from the opposition, the Dane took the victory after ten minutes of play giving her first shot at the match. Fighting Pavlyuchenkova was the last mission for the fifth seed, pushing the game to deuce. A double fault on the second match point opportunity from Pavlyuchenkova gave Wozniacki the win after 1 hour and 18 minutes.
The former number one recorded her 55th match win this season which became the fifth time she has won as many and the first since 2011. She’ll earn the easy night off and prep for the third round facing the winner between Petra Kvitova and Varvara Lepchenko Wednesday.
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