Monica Puig saw herself way out of it in the opening set but pulled off the match of her career at the Miami Open early Saturday morning. The Puerto Rican took down Caroline Wozniacki
in a tough three setter winning 0-6, 6-4, 6-4 on Stadium Court at Crandon Park Tennis Center. Defeating the world number two became the second time in her career that she achieved the feat and the fourth time defeating a top five player.
The series between the two stood well with the world number two gaining two wins over the Puerto Rican last season. Despite losing in the round of 16, the Dane remained in the race of the number one ranking with her game standing strong. Going against Puig hasn’t been easy for the 27-year-old as they went three sets in the past. The match under the lights with the Olympic gold medalist carrying a lot of support in the stands two nights ago and would be there to support her in a big matchup.
Wozniacki put together good control to open the match, gaining the first break as Puig showed signs of trouble on the second serve. Puig handed another game to the Dane as her response in the return department wasn’t up to par. Wozniacki had her chance to run away with the set in the fourth getting on errors from Puig and a dominance on her part.
Despite having one error in the fifth, Wozniacki continued to stay cool and collected while on a runaway with the set. With Puig on the edge, she tried her best to secure the win but the consistent errors led her to deuce with the second seed. She watched as her opponent took little time to put the set to bed landing a winner to conclude 25 minutes. During the break, Wozniacki’s father and coach came out to tell her how well she was doing and small tips on how to fix the issues she had. Puig had 18 errors in the span of those six games and two double faults didn’t help her efforts.
Many didn’t expect much of a battle to occur in the second set but Puig’s relentlessness to fall was apparent in the first game. She allowed Wozniacki to avoid handing her a break right away forcing deuce in the process. It was then that they went long with the game that took ten minutes to decide. Puig blew five chances to achieve the break point which ultimately gave the Dane the win on the sixth break securing the AD point.
The second saw a foothold from Puig that handed her a game win and service hold against the world number two. She got into the groove of service holds with Wozniacki making it a set that would be determined by the efforts of one another. Puig got the break of the night turning the set to her control with Wozniacki taking a chat with her coach that saw her expressing her thoughts.
Puig added a fourth to her bottom line taking a margin to Wozniacki who saw her straight set hopes dwindling. A solid hold in the seventh but her a game down instead giving it all she had to close the gap on Puig. It didn’t happen as the eighth stayed in the hands of Puig who brought some good ground strokes to her skills securing the fifth win of the set pressuring Wozniacki to falter. It didn’t happen on serving out the ninth where she put the fire on her shots to come out still a game down of tying it.
Puig wouldn’t let her get it as she landed an ace in the tenth game before putting down some tough shots that couldn’t be returned by the world number two. On set point, the 24-year-old landed a shot that Wozniacki couldn’t get back on the fly ball sending the match to a deciding third set after 51 minutes
It was clear that momentum had changed dramatically with Puig taking a big turn of positive change in her game. Fans in the stadium were livened for their hometown girl making the night very difficult for the second seed. She was down 2-0 very quick trying to wake up her offense and get on the board. The two went to deuce where after a couple of breaks, the Dane achieved a way to end her woes. She wasn’t out of the woods as the fans continued to rattle the mind of the 27-year-old as they made noise during the point giving umpire Majia Cicak the same statement of anger over the situation.
Despite all the problems facing her game, the moment remained in the hands of the Puerto Rican who was bringing back the winners that saw her opponent swing and miss at. It was a 4-1 hold until a big gift from Puig gave Wozniacki a break to love with a double fault sitting two games down in the deciding set. The gap became smaller as Wozniacki served to love in the seventh making it a hopeful chance that she could comeback from earlier and still win the match.
Puig continued to hold serve as she gained the 5-3 lead that had Wozniacki in the shadow of an upset. The world number to kept her cool and held it together in the ninth that had Puig back on the ball to serve for the match. Wozniacki felt the tension that showed on her return game giving Puig the 30-0 opening. As she got into a rally, Puig remained firm in her responses that saw Wozniacki err first on the rally. With three match points to her name, Puig earned the biggest win of her year winning on a strong winner to cap the match in 1 hour and 55 minutes that ended short of 1 a.m. local time.
“It’s like Rio all over again,” she said to Andrew Krasny after the match. “I just tried to stay positive. I didn’t think I did a lot wrong with a ball here and there missing a line. She’s such a great competitor so I knew I had to stay in there, stay focused and keep fighting and just found my way out there.”
“I’ve been waiting for this moment and just waiting to finding myself again and it feels really good.” With the bottom half of the women’s draw wide open, it was anyone’s to win but for Puig she would find herself in new territory in South Beach facing Maria Sakkari of Greece on Sunday.
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