Wozniacki wins Nature Valley International in straight sets

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Caroline Wozniacki showed her opponent no mercy at the Nature Valley International Saturday. The world number two pressured Aryna Sabalenka at the right points during the match to win in straight sets 7-5, 7-6(5) capturing her 29^th WTA title on Center Court at Devonshire Park.

A first time meeting became the pinnacle of both their careers as one searched for her first WTA premier while the other tried for the third time to get it. The 2009 winner looked to end her nine year absence from having her hands on the grass court title but had no experience playing the young Belorussian. Sabalenka won a 125k at Mumbai last year but missed out on an international title at Lugano back in April. With everything going her way so far with an aggressive style of tennis, the 20 year old would try to not only pull together an upset but also take a big step in her career as a player with much to gain for herself.

After facing the opening serve of Wozniacki, Sabalenka jumped out to a 2-1 lead earning a clean triple break of the Dane before fighting to keep hold of her service game. The top seed wouldn’t let her get a third breaking back in the fourth to level the score. In her attempt to reel in the serve, Wozniacki was again challenged by the 20 year old who scored a double break in the fifth. She carried the most built up momentum of the set taking her hold after three breaks on deuce to lead by two games. The Dane needed another hold and got it with much easier effort keeping in touch with Sabalenka through seven.

The Belorussian couldn’t get through one of her serves so easily as she had to go to deuce with Wozniacki. Despite extra work being required, the 20 year old continued to hold the Dane at bay leading 5-3. A rare mistake hit Sabalenka during the ninth where she touched the net earning a penalty that gave Wozniacki an edge to ultimately hand a free game. The serve was back in her hands but couldn’t secure the set making too many errors in the game. It gave the world number two life to play on as Sabalenka racked up unforced errors to lose control.

Wozniacki gained the lead at a critical point to serve for the set but saw her opponent get some last minute advice from her coach on what to do to force a tiebreak. She wouldn’t get the chance to do that as she laid down a strong service hold in the 12^th to bring an end to 58 minutes of play. Sabalenka had 27 errors that was her issue to holding the offense together which saw 20 winners and a first serve percentage near 70 percent.

With the ground lost due to Wozniacki’s pure surge of control, she opened the second with a service hold looking to induct the same strategy of how the match started. She opened to a 3-1 lead trying hard to keeping the Dane at bay and force a third set in action. Wozniacki held serve in the fifth getting closer to leveling again with Sabalenka under pressure. She couldn’t hold serve in the sixth erring just enough getting Wozniacki to level terms.

The number one seed held in the seventh that put Sabalenka in a tough spot mentally as she couldn’t recover from losing the gap created early. With something positive turning on inside her, the Belorussian turned the tables back around and won two straight to serve for a deciding third set. Unforced returned for the 20 year old opening the door for the Dane to walk through on three break points making it 5-5.

The 27 year old had Sabalenka right where she wanted her as reminders of the first set were in play. She got the serve locked down in the 11^th as Sabalenka fired the ball too wide on the returns. With only one more chance to save herself, the 20 year old had a good start but had her mental game fall apart at times. Despite those moments, she held in the 12^th to set up the tiebreak which Wozniacki showed no worries about.

It wasn’t until the errors began to roll up for the number one seed who fell 1-4 to Sabalenka before she cut the lead in half before the changeover. She lost another point but closed in to get a chance at overtaking. A challenge arrived for the Dane during a critical point that gave her the chance to put Sabalenka away. With the lead at 6-5, the 28 year old got match point winning on a miss from the young Belorussian ending her title hopes in 1 hour and 57 minutes.

Wozniacki showed poise from start to finish finishing the match at 76 percent with 59 percent of points won from it. While it stood at the strongest element of her offense, her focus and the difficulties put on Sabalenka were enough to get her second title in the Eastbourne. She would be more than warmed up for the Wimbledon tournament beginning Monday but fatigue would no doubt play a role in how she and Sabalenka performed in the opening round.

Wozniacki returns to Eastbourne final in thrilling win over Kerber

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Caroline Wozniacki  shoved all in to get back to the final of the Nature Valley International Friday. The top seed was down match point in the second set against Angelique Kerber

to force a decider and win it on her terms with a 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-4 score on Centre Court at Devonshire Park. It was the second straight time Wozniacki made it to the end at Eastbourne in what was the most challenging for her this week.

The two rekindled their long series battle at Doha playing three long sets before it went to the Dane getting her sixth win against the German. Kerber has just one title this year which is in no case close to Wozniacki’s Australian Open victory. Despite not being a power player so far, she would try to keep her career lead in the meetings and gain a ninth that would take her to another shot at getting a second title. Both have dropped a set in the tournament to date and would no doubt have one against the other in their 15^th duel and second at Eastbourne since 2014 in the semis.

The match opened with Wozniacki holding her own in the first before Kerber got into the groove. They went clean through four games before the German broke Wozniacki in the fifth. In a blink of an eye, she gained a 5-2 lead on the top seed serving easily for the set. Kerber performed the seventh flawlessly scoring three set points to blank the Dane in 29 minutes. Despite serving at 60 percent, she kept the errors low recording three in the set winning 11 of 12 on first serve points.

The good work done in the first didn’t flow into the second right away as Wozniacki built up a lead for herself as she intended to go the distance in this one. The world number two opened up to three games before the German started to fight back. After seven games elapsed, Kerber was within reach serving in the eighth to level the score. She did it holding Wozniacki to a point to even up the score at four all. She hunted for the break in the ninth in an attempt to refocus on a straight sets projection.

Wozniacki wouldn’t let her get another break to set it up holding firm to threaten a third set into being played out. Kerber answered with a big service hold that sent them to extra frames putting the Dane on the hot seat first. Her aggressive style of tennis was there to force Kerber into a tight situation on deuce but hit the ball long twice to give Kerber another try at the match.

Every point was key for both players as they let very little get away with one another. Kerber had an error at 30 all handing Wozniacki a break point but got to deuce on an error. The German laid down a cross court winner before going for an ace on match point that was called out. Hawkeye showed that it caught the line but was replayed in a long rally lasting for the Dane to force things back to deuce. She set herself up for another break point that then set up a seven point shootout to determine the path of the match.

The top seed made her intentions clear finding a way to overtake Kerber after four points had been drawn keeping her back enough to reach set point. The German gained two more but couldn’t close the gap to keep the set alive. They took 68 minutes to finish the set where it saw both players playing even strengths with Wozniacki carrying enough aggression in her offense to set up the deciding set.

Kerber opened up the scoring followed by Wozniacki who showed a lot of focus going on. After a tie through four, the world 27 year old held serve and followed it up with a break to lead 4-2. Kerber got back within one denying Wozniacki a double break at a point where the match was coming closer to its conclusion with no clear winner.

She leveled again with Wozniacki but the top seed was on a mission to finish the match on her terms breaking Kerber in the ninth to serve for it. Kerber used a redirecting tactic to get ahead in the game but saw her opponent rally back to deuce. After 2 hours and 16 minutes, the Dane reached match point to score a final winner in the corner to get into another WTA final.

“It was tough,” Wozniacki said during her on court interview. “Being down match point got me a little light headed both times but somehow managed to get through and we always have tough matches and against Angie wasn’t going to be an easy one today.”

She’ll go into Saturday playing Aryna Sabalenka in the final where she could win another title in the English seaside town. “She plays aggressive tennis,” she said. “She tries to get into attack at the start so I have to be ready.”

Sabalenka overcomes Radwanska to advance to first WTA premier title match

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Agnieszka Radwanska met her match at the Nature Valley International Friday afternoon. The Polish star who had a solid run through the tournament saw it come to an end due to a hard fight from Aryna Sabalenka who overcame a devasting second set to win 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 on centre court at Devonshire Park. It was her first appearance in a WTA premier event winning four amazing matches in the tournament.

The match was an important moment for the young Belorussian as she inched closer to appearing in her third WTA final. With one under her belt and nearly getting by Sharapova earlier this season, a win over Radwanska would go a long way to set up a big premier WTA moment for the 20 year old. While she had no experience against the Polish tennis veteran on the tour, getting an edge against her would be essential to setting herself in position to dictate. The world number 31 has returned and showed her fierce power of taking control of a match at any moment and not letting go. With a lot to prove before Monday’s start of Wimbledon, the 29 year old wanted to add her first WTA title of the season but had to get through Sabalenka to do it.

She opened the match with a break of the Belorussian before getting another to lead early. Sabalenka answered with a strong response leveling the score at two all before she stayed with her opponent through six. She broke through in the seventh getting the edge needed over the 29 year old, dictating the next three games that gave her a solid finish after 43 minutes of play. While she had the most errors of the two (17) her 25 winners made up for the three double faults and edging Radwanska on break points was also a key to success.

She couldn’t flow it into the second set after breaking Radwanska in the opening game losing the next three in a row. She had trouble getting the serves running the way she wanted making it easy for Radwanska to control both sides of the game. It was quickly 4-1 for the Polish star who had a beat down of Sabalenka’s confidence that frustrated the 20 year old.

On serve in the sixth, she tried to reel in her offense on deuce but made errors at the wrong times opening the door. On a fourth break point attempt, Radwanska secured the win taking her winning streak to five games. She served out the set with ease making it another difficult day for Sabalenka as she was forced to play a third set for her fifth match in a row. The set lasted 33 minutes with the Belorussian clearly losing focus lowering the number of winners with the unforced errors (17) being too much. Radwanska had only two in the set with just five winners but the serve at 72 percent, the 29 year old opened the third with comfort to dictate at any moment.

Sabalenka knew that she had to defend every point in the final set to find a way to pull off a win against the surging star of the sport. She had control through her first two service games but the third went into the hands of Radwanska gaining the first break of the set. She thought she had the set in her grasp at 40-0, but an attack from Sabalenka included three winners that forced deuce before earning the break point.

The 20 year old fought every point to stay tight through six but a surge from her game arrived holding in the seventh before breaking the veteran in the eighth. It gave her the shot at serving for the match coming back from 0-30 down to force deuce for herself. She had errors show up but tried to wrinkle them out earing a chance on her first AD point. She took it with a volley response that saw Radwanska hit it a little too hard landing behind the baseline.

The match came to a close after 1 hour and 55 minutes finishing with 54 winners despite having 45 errors and six double faults. “I just tried to stay focused because I lost my focus after the first set,” Sabalenka said after the match. “I’ve played 15 sets in four days so I lost my focus and tried to put the ball in and go crazy for every shot and that was a key.”

With all that time on court under her belt, she would need to find the energy to go for it all facing the winner between Caroline Wozniacki and Angelique Kerber on Saturday. “it’s gonna be a good experience for my tomorrow to play against really tough players and will be interesting.”