Caroline Wozniacki proved why she was defending champion at the Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open Tuesday night. The defending champion overwhelmed Eugenie Bouchard into submission winning 6-1, 6-1 on centre court at Victoria Park Tennis Stadium. It was the third time that the Canadian lost in the first round and one that saw her struggling to even get started.
The two stars of the spot hadn’t met in three years making this an interesting start to the tournament. While Wozniacki fell out midway into the China Open her improvement has shown since winning a title in Tokyo. The 27 year old Danish player continued her winning ways at times but showed falter losing to Petra Kvitova recently. The Canadian had a lot riding on her own game which caused her to lose the last three matches. Wanting to avoid another first round exit, the 23 year old had to bring her best against Wozniacki or suffer constant disappointments.
She witnessed the power of Wozniacki’s opening serve that nearly got the best of her on her own service game. Bouchard overcame a 0-40 deficit to hang on in the second but the effort was less than desired. She watched the world number six take the next game and earn a well earned break in the fourth. It was there that Wozniacki took off with a grip on the set gaining a momentum that Bouchard could not replicate for herself. On serve in the seventh, the Dane held Bouchard to deuce before ripping a shot that set up the AD point bringing an end to the set in 30 minutes.
The second set didn’t get any better for the Canadian as getting a game winner was dead in the water. She endured a quick finish to her night as Wozniacki ran to a 5-0 run with no strong answers from Bouchard during that time. It wasn’t until the sixth game when the bagel was looming over the head of the 23 year old Montreal native that she pulled off a break point statement getting herself on the board.
The pressure still heavily sat on her side of the court as the former number one vied to close out the match by any means. With some fight on the break, Wozniacki went to deuce for a second match point attempt that came on an error from Bouchard into the net ending the match in 58 minutes with a true dominance. Wozniacki finished with a well-rounded serve and return game that earned her the win to move into the round of 16 Wednesday. She’ll take on Lizette Cabrera on Thursday in a first time meeting.
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