Aleksandra Wozniak tops Daniela Hantuchova in two tough sets – Rogers Cup 2012
Canadian tennis ace, Aleksandra Wozniak won against the top-10 Slovakian tennis ace, Daniela Hantuchova, at her home soil on Tuesday. She recorded a straight set upset of 7-5, 7-6 (5) in the opening round of the Rogers Cup
2012, an outdoor hard court tennis tournament in Toronto, Canada.
Both players struggled hard to maintain their positions earlier on and faced a series of breakpoints in the opening set. Both the players finally succeeded to level each other’s serves at 5-5 but Wozniak took the lead and
won the vital game to cliam hte opening set 7-5.
The match delayed due to the misty weather, however, they had to return to the courts after 55 minutes and after that, the Canadian implanted firm feet on the soil. The world number 35 struggled hard to take the lead but
miserably failed due to her unforced errors.
The second set faced a similar pattern and but Hantuchova lost the game due to her error of judgement while serving at 4-4. To her surprise, the Canadian local struck a shot outside the line, giving the opponent a lead of
5-4 lead in the match. Later she gifted a crucial double fault to her rival and eventually lost the game to Wozniak, giving her a lead of 6-5.
Wozniak enjoyed three match points but as she was unable to convert any of them and Hantuchova dragged the set into a tie-breaker round. The decider lasted for a total of seven minutes and Wozniak wrapped up victory at 7-6(5)
to come out as the surprise winner.
Wozniak told the media, “I’m glad we were able to finish tonight. I knew I had to be ready for the tiebreaker and I had to focus on every point. It was disappointing not to finish it earlier but I knew I could not let it
bother me. I tried to finish it when I had the match points, but it was not easy. I gave everything on every point. It was important for me to win here.”
Ranked 55th in the ATP World Tour Rankings, Wozniak can surely set a new record at the Toronto Masters. Previously, she has never gone beyond the second round. Nonetheless, if she continues with the
same pace then she can drastically improve her rankings.
The Canadian has the great home advantage but might just have to face a tough challenge at the hands of leading tennis aces like Petra Kvitova and the Polish Agnieszka Radwanska in the future tie-ups. Wozniak will contest
against the 13th seeded Serbian, Jelena Jankovic in the second round of the tournament.
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