Australian Open 2020: Caroline Wozniacki's farewell tour continues with win over Dayana Yastremska
Dayana Yastremska gave it a good fight but let the unforced errors and nerves get the best of her at the Australian Open Wednesday. Caroline Wozniacki gave herself another day to play earning a big win 7-5, 7-5 on Margaret Court Arena at Melbourne Park.
This was the second meeting between the youngster and the veteran who fights for another match with retirement looming over her. Yastremska won back at Cincinnati with a straight-sets victory that put her on the road to being in the top 25 by season’s end.
A very convincing service hold was put down by the former world number one. Yastremska had some trouble adjusting to the windy conditions on the court but managed to level the score early. Chances in the third gave the young Ukrainian the opening break. She consolidated it with a hold scoring her fifth ace while Wozniacki swung and missed it.
The Dane missed another shot at holding serve with Yastremska on errors that resulted in her getting broken for a second time. Big power shots from the 23rd seed earned a 5-1 score with a shot at breaking the 2018 champion for the set. Wozniacki refused to lose a third time on serve and secured the seventh game with hopes that a comeback was in motion. The 29-year-old scored a break to love, cutting the gap to two and a shutout on serve in the ninth getting in reach.
Wozniacki completed the comeback with Yastremska out of focus. The 29-year-old made it five in a row, securing the serve while perfectly adjusted to the wind. Yastremska fought hard on serve in the 12th to force a tiebreak, but despite blowing two chances on deuce, the victory went to Wozniacki who clinched the set after 53 minutes. Unforced errors piled up in the latter stages of the first set with the Ukrainian committing 22, which impacted the first serve.
Taking a break off the court worked out for the 19-year-old, who came out breaking Wozniacki twice for the 3-0 lead. The Dane broke back in the fourth and closed in again with the consolidation of serve. Yastremska stopped short her opponent's winning streak and brought the score back to 4-2 after six games, trying to find another break to link together. Wozniacki denied her the chance to go 5-3 up and got close with a four-all situation.
Errors cost her a break to love putting the 29-year-old on serve where she secured the ninth with the window open to win the match. Before Yastremska could serve to stay alive, she took a medical timeout to have her upper right leg taped up. With rhythms cooled off, the battles on rallies were dramatic until the Dane had two match points. Both were lost by an error into the net and a winner from the Ukrainian. After two breaks of deuce, the 23rd seed had the game won with her spirit being far from extinguished.
The former world number one had Yastremska on the ropes with the 6-5 lead. She worked her way through to deuce and caught her fourth and fifth match point, but the Ukrainian saved them. A sixth would do the trick as the 23rd seed made back-to-back errors, thus ending a lengthy match in two hours and two minutes.
“She came out really flying hitting the ball so hard and so precise that I just didn’t know what to do,” Wozniacki said to Ian Cullen during her on-court interview. “She started making a few more errors, and I got more depth on the ball, and tried to mix up the pace.”
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