Caroline Wozniacki advances to Pan Pacific Open final
World number two Caroline Wozniacki dismissed her eighth seeded tennis foe, Victoria Azarenka, in an absorbing three setter match on Friday to reach the title battle of the Pan Pacific Open Women’s competition.
The Dane, who is seeded number one to win the title in Tokyo, got the better of her Belarusian foe in a clash that was stretched to a time period of three hours on Friday. The final match score was 6-2, 6-7(3), 6-4.
Caroline, as a result of this victory has made her way into the final of the $2 million competition on the very first occasion in her career.
Chasing her fifth trophy of the year, Caroline on Saturday will take on the winner of the second semi final match between Elena Dementieva of Russian and the French open champ, Francesca Schiavone.
"I got the first set and the second set was real tight but Victoria played well, especially from the middle and all the way through. I took a break and in the third set it was a new match and I just went out there and did my best”, said Caroline after the
match.
Wozniacki missed serve in the first game on a sun-kissed centre court in Tokyo. However, within no time bounced back to take a lead of 4-1 before winning the opening set when Victoria Azarenka double faulted on the sixth occasion.
Both of them traded breaks on two occasions at the beginning of the second set. However, the Dane held her serve to make it 3-2 with an impressive backhand down the line.
The twenty year old Caroline took full advantage from yet another double fault from her foe to tie the second set at 6-6. However, Victoria dug deep to grab the tie break as well as the set when Wozniacki smashed her return long.
Caroline stormed into a 5-0 lead in the decisive set, at last prevailing after a valiant battle back from Victoria.
"At 5-0 I felt really good and thought the match was mine already and then Victoria just started playing really, really well and it was 5-4. It was my serve and I knew I had to close it out otherwise it's going to be tough," said Caroline after confirming
her final berth in Tokyo.
She further added, "I feel really good and enjoy being here in Tokyo and to play the final here is a great feeling. I am looking forward to that".
Winning the crown here combined with a quarterfinal spot or better at next week's championship in Beijing could see Caroline dislodge Serena Williams at the top of the WTA rankings.
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