Caroline Wozniacki supersedes Jelena Jankovic to reach the quarters in Melbourne – Tennis Special
Reigning world number one, Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, registered a straight sets victory over the former top ranked Serbian, Jelena Jankovic, in the fourth round of the Australian Open on Sunday evening. The top ranked Dane
took one hour and 43 minutes to wrap up her victory at 6-0, 7-5, to march into the quarter-final draw of the first Grand Slam tournament of the year in Melbourne, Australia.
It was a completely one-sided contest in the opening set, with Wozniacki dominating every bit of it but Janko came up with a decent reply in the following set before losing eventually. The top seed pocketed the first set with a
bagel and had to manoeuvre her way through the next set to conclude a straight sets victory in style.
Although Wozniacki stepped on the hard court of Rod Laver Arena as the hot favourite, speculations were made on her shaky game play in big matches. It was feared that the world number one will crumble once again in a big match
against the former top ranked contestant but she shut everyone with a convincing performance with her racquet. She was absolutely unplayable in the opening set and reeled off six games in a row to dismantle her Serb opponent early in the contest. She was caught
by her nerves for a moment in the second set but remained focused in the match to register a much needed victory in the end.
Wozniacki’s victory was greatly assisted by the error-ridden game play of Jankovic, who coughed total of 50 unforced errors in the match, including seven costly double faults. The 13th seed Serb was badly struggling
with her shot accuracy and most of her returns landed long and wide of the court to bestow easy points to her opponent. Janko utterly failed to hold her serve in the opener but nailed two serve breaks in the following set, yet finishing on the losing side
in the end.
“She started to play very well. She had nothing to lose. When it was 5-4, 40-30, I was thinking, 'Okay, I need to get this point and I need to close it out.’ It was like déjà vu from last year," Wozniacki said of the match point,
where she thumped a forehand return straight into the net. "When it got to 5-all I said, 'Okay, doesn't matter. We're even here. Just keep going and fighting”
Wozniacki kept her basics right throughout the contest and used her serve as a primary weapon of destruction. She delivered 72 per cent of the first serve on target and secured 29 out of 44 points on it, with her opponent lagging
behind with just 20 points. The top seed appears well on-course for bagging her maiden Grand Slam title in Australia. The Dane has always faced heavy criticism of reining the top spot without a Major championship title ah her back. Some critics have even gone
so far by saying that Wozniacki don’t deserve to be a world number one if she can’t win a Grand Slam title.
It is a perfect opportunity for Wozniacki to silence all the voices against her, as she is just three more victories away to claim the Grand Slam Down Under and strengthen her position as the world number one.
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