Caroline Wozniacki advances to the final of Dubai WTA Premier
The top seeded Caroline Wozniacki reached the finals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship after defeating the sixth seed, Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic by straight sets of 7-5, 6-3 on Saturday.
Wozniacki, who secured her world number 1 ranking again after reaching this spot, had an 80 per cent winning record for the last ten matches. She is in awesome form and lost to ninth seed, China’s Li Na in the semi-finals of the Australian Open Grand Slam.
In this Dubai WTA Premier, she overpowered Russia’s Anna Chakvetadze and Japan’s Ayumi Morita in the first two rounds and triumphed over ninth seed, Israeli Shahar Peer in the quarter-finals.
The world number 8, Jankovic had a 40 per cent winning record for her last ten matches. She lost in the second round of Australian Open. She entered this tournament in good shape and managed to beat South Africa’s Chanelle Scheepers and 12th seed
Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi in the first two rounds. In the quarter-finals, she defeated fourth seed Australia’s Samantha Stosur.
In head-to-head records, Jankovic apparently leads with 4-0 record. Last time, they met in Indian Wells final in 2010, where Jankovic dispatched the Dane in straight sets with a 6-2, 6-4 score line. This time Wozniacki is looking in good form to make it
a worthwhile battle.
The lower ranked Serbian was on fire right from the beginning as she went on to win the first three games including a break of the top seed’s serve. Wozniacki quickly refocused herself and got on board by holding on to her serve. Both seeded players held
their serves with their brilliant skills until the score was 3-5 to Wozniacki. The Dane made a stunning comeback and won 4 games in a row including two breaks of serve to win this set in 63 minutes. Although she had a lower first serve percentage of 68 per
cent to Jankovic’s 73 per cent, she registered an impressive 69 per cent win on it.
The frustrated Serbian roared back and won the first game of the final set by holding on to her serve. She broke Wozniacki’s serve once and saved break points four times. But it was not enough to hold the Dane back as she managed to break Jankovic’s serve
three times and had an acceptable first serve percentage of 63 per cent to Serbian’s 60 per cent. Wozniacki had an amazing 67 per cent win on it.
The world number one is looking in great form to clinch this year’s Dubai title. She will be facing either Italy’s Flavia Pennetta or Russia’s Alisa Kleybanova in the final.
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