Wimbledon 2019: Wozniacki scores an important win over Kudermetova
Caroline Wozniacki had a challenge on her hands but came out victorious to enter the third round of the Championships Wimbledon Wednesday. The Dane broke ahead in the second set to defeat Veronika Kudermetova 7-6(5), 6-3 on Court One at the All England Tennis Club.
Wozniacki was out for revenge after losing in the opening round of the French Open to the Russian. While she didn’t go deep into the previous Slam, carrying around a victory against a former world number one was big for the 22-year-old. Her time playing at Hertogenbosch and Eastbourne prepared her well completing a strong win over Ysaline Bonaventure Monday. With her set on pulling off another upset, Wozniacki’s saved energy from Monday’s abrupt ending would need to come in quick.
Both started the set well with Wozniacki double faulting but drew enough errors to hold the game. The Russian did better with a forehand smash and a couple of errors from the Dane to level up. They remained on serve through five when Kudermetova concerned fans as she showed trouble breathing on court. A medical timeout with the physiotherapist helped her get back into action and hold against Wozniacki in the sixth.
The treatment continued to work wonders for the 22-year-old as she held her ground against Wozniacki into the tenth that set up a possible tiebreak. She followed the 28-year-old with a sixth consecutive hold to move into a tiebreak that would see one of them stumble. Through six points, they remained dead even but on the seventh point, Wozniacki caught the minibreak to lead 4-3. A point on serve opened the gap but a mini-break for Kudermetova cut the margin. A big error from the Russian handed Wozniacki set point which came on a second set crosscourt that got returned into the net ending a tight 56-minute challenge.
As the second set began, Wozniacki tried to edge Kudermetova with a 40-15 push. The 22-year-old rallied back to force deuce denying the 14th seed an AD point to hold serve. Facing her first deficit of the match, Wozniacki held firm in the second and linked a break in the next game that took some effort on deuce but was won briskly. She added a serve to love that opened the gap with a 3-1 score. The fifth became the most competitive of the entire match as Kudermetova almost had the game locked down but was forced to deuce.
The two played seven breaks where Kudermetova needed seven attempts to get the game locked down after the dozen minutes that it took to win. Staying in touch with the Dane took a lot of effort as Wozniacki went along in the sixth and held before facing the Russian on serve. She managed to keep a lid on the game and remain a game down. The 14th seed locked down a final service hold before going for it against Kudermetova’s serve in the ninth.
It was again a moment to shut down the game that got away from her as unforced errors that was numbering high cost her to play deuce. After three breaks and a third match point attempt, Wozniacki got the day finished as Kudermetova erred for the last time ending play in 1 hour and 47 minutes.
“I’m very happy with the result,” Wozniacki said to BBC Sports reporter Simon Mundie. “She’s a tough opponent and serving really big. I was frustrated that I couldn’t get that second break in the second set because it would have given me a little cushion but I managed to win it on returns so I’m happy with that.”
It gave her the most positive feeling to avenge her loss at Roland Garros and find a way to break her apart with just six unforced errors throughout the match.
“It was important to me because I’ve been feeling pretty well and my body is healthy and that’s the main thing and hopefully I can have a few more matches here.”
She’ll look into Friday in the third round when she’ll face Shuai Zhang of China.