Wuhan Open: Wozniacki rallies to straight sets win
Caroline Wozniacki got herself back on track to win at the Wuhan Open Tuesday afternoon. The Dane who had a rough opening set took care to rout Rebecca Peterson in the final set winning 6-4, 6-1 on Centre Court at the Wuhan Optical Valley International Tennis Centre.
This was the first time the two with the Dane needing a solid win to start the WTA premier event. She dropped her opening round match in Tokyo losing to Camila Giorgi in three sets. With little response to come back, she’ll try to maintain her status as the second-ranked player in the world and extend her time in China.
Peterson sat on a three-match winning streak winning a quick one against Timea Babos due to the Hungarian’s retirement. With plenty of energy in the tank, the Swede would look for her biggest career win against Wozniacki.
Peterson held to open the scoring in the match where she had to force deuce before winning it on the second break. Wozniacki responded with a stronger service game that evened the score early yet set a pace for the Dane.
She forced the Swede into submission in the third to capture the first break opening the door to dictate early. Peterson fought to keep herself in touch with Wozniacki but after a couple of breaks, it ended for her on an unforced error making it 3-1 for the second seed.
Peterson wasn’t out of the running as she pulled off a great hold in the fifth to get her back in contention. Wozniacki wouldn’t let her get another as she won the next two games with a clean serve to love in the sixth followed by another break to serve for the set at 5-2. Wozniacki tried to get it done but blew two set points to get Peterson on deuce. The Dane gained another set point chance but blew that one before the Swede took the game away.
Peterson was intent on staying the course fighting every point with the world number two who forced deuce. They went six breaks with the Swede gaining the AD points before it worked out for her in the end. The lead was in danger of slipping away for Wozniacki who allowed two games to get away from her.
With another opportunity to end the set, the Dane gained three set points where her fourth attempt came back as a wide return from Peterson ended 56 minutes. She had 22 unforced errors recorded to Wozniacki making just four. It was a major impact that let the Dane have a sigh of relief in hopes to make the second set go differently.
It didn’t as Peterson held to start the set but faced the power of the 28-year-old who held before consolidating it with a break in the third. Wozniacki was again in a comfort zone in the fourth where she put down another hold before getting the double break for a 4-1 run.
The second seed closed in on victory taking another hold in the sixth, putting Peterson on the edge of defeat. With three match points achieved in the seventh, Wozniacki pressured the Swede to fight where she saved two match points but not the last bringing a close to her day in 1 hour and 24 minutes.
“It feels great winning my first match here,” Wozniacki said after the match. “It was a very tough one. She’s been playing very well lately and I knew it wasn’t going to be easy but am happy to be through to the next round.” For the second time this season, she will go against Olympic goal medalist Monica Puig who she faced in a stressful match in Miami.