Caroline
Wozniacki was almost perfect in her fourth-round match at the Australian Open. The Dane barely missed much
on court at Rod Laver Arena against Magdalena Rybarikova
who she took for a 6-3,
6-0 win. It was the first time the 27-year-old advanced to the quarterfinals
since 2012 looking to go further.
With one more match before entering the second week, the Dane
found herself on an unstoppable run in her quest to become world number one
again. She got through Kiki Bertens in straight sets dealing with a last-minute
comeback that occurred in the second. With her 3-1 series lead over the
Slovakian it was likely that she would remind the 29-year-old of her force of
offense. Rybarikova put in a lot of energy in her last two matches that went
three sets each coming out strong after a lopsided second set. While Wozniacki
stood as a higher leveled opponent, she would try to put in plenty of work to
pull off an upset midway through the tournament.
Both started positively with holds of serve but a break due
to winners helped the Slovakian take the lead in the set. She landed her
seventh winner with a forehand drive near the line that had Wozniacki beaten on
serve. The second seed followed suit with the break that took three tries on
deuce to get even through four. Wozniacki consolidated a hold followed by a
full break of the Rybarikova to give her a 4-2 hold.
The world number two’s game continued to rise as she kept
the winning streak alive and well capping two straight holds. In her quest for
the double break and set win Rybarikova held firm with a winning volley that
ended Wozniacki’s streak. Despite overcoming a deficit on her serve, the Dane
rallied two points to achieve set point on a winner closing the set out in 36
minutes with a backhanded winner. It was the 14th from her in the
set where she served 75 percent and won over three quarters of points from it.
She dominated the second set with a big 2-0 lead that
angered Rybarikova. The Slovakian battled even after a 25-shot rally to force
deuce with the Dane only to come up short and 0-3 down. Rybarikova tried to use
the lobs to mess with Wozniacki’s pace it only made it easier for the world
number two to counter with a solid winner that only increased her margin of
victory. Wozniacki attained three breaks in the fifth to win and serve for the
match.
The second seed coasted to a bagel against Rybarikova
allowing her just one point in the sixth before ending the one hour and three-minute
match with a high ball return landing long of the baseline.
“She’s a really tricky opponent,” Wozniacki said about her
opponent after the match. “She picks up the pace and I didn’t really expect
those forehands down the line. I started to calm down a little bit and started
to get returns into play because she’s serving big and wait for the opportunity
to attack.”
With a high amount of confidence reaching the second week of
competition, she’ll go against Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro on Tuesday. “Carla
is a great woman,” she said about her next adversary. “I’ve played her so many
time before. We’ve had marathons and a little bit of everything so I’m excited.
It’s the quarterfinal and she’s an amazing player so were gonna have fun out
there.”
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