Caroline Wozniacki destroys Polona Hercog to reach quarter-finals – New Haven Open 2011
Going through a terrible slump these days, the world number one, Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark finally registered a victory in the second round of New Haven Open at Yale, defeating the 41st ranked Slovenian contestant, Polona Hercog, on Tuesday.
The contest was played on the hard courts of the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center in New Haven, Connecticut, United States, with the top seed Dane wining in the most authoritative manner. Wozniacki blew away Hercog in just one hour and thirteen minutes to wrap up straight sets victory at 6-3, 6-0, to move into the quarter-final round of the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Premier Series event.
Wozniacki suffered humiliating defeats in the opening rounds at Toronto and Cincinnati but the top ranked Dane exhibited her true class in the Tuesday’s matchup to drive the Slovenian out of the competition. It was 50th victory for Wozniacki in the running WTA season and the second one against Hercog, as she defeated the Slovenian last year in a clay tournament at Poland.
The top seed was absolutely ballistic in the matchup and gave away no chances to her opponent to have her impact over the contest. The Danish serve remained unbroken in the entire matchup, while Wozniacki cracked in four serve breaks en route to victory. Hercog utterly failed to craft a single break opportunity in the contest and won just three games in the whole matchup to finish on the losing end. Wozniacki delivered 67 per cent of her serve on target and clinched 25 out of 30 first serve points, while her opponent lagged behind with 16 points.
The opener was off to a steady start, with both contestants holding serve in the opening seven games. Wozniacki shifted her gears in the eighth game and launched a series of forays, breaking Hercog in every single game to follow. She closed out the opening set at 6-3 and nailed four consecutive serve breaks in the rest of the match to push Hercog out of the competition with authority.
Bewildered Slovenian couldn’t withstand the fury of the world number one and dropped her serve in all the games of the second set to let Wozniacki away with victory at 6-0. The top seed moved into the round of eight of the tournament to face the local wildcard, Christina McHale for a place in the semis. McHale outplayed Wozniacki last week in Cincinnati and defeated the sixth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in the first round of New Haven Open.
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