Caroline Wozniacki triumphs over Varvara Lepchenko at Brussels Ladies Open
Top seed, Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki battled past America’s Varvara Lepchenko in straight sets at 2011 Open de Bruxelles, a red clay court tournament held in Brussels, Belgium. She registered a 6-4, 7-6(5) success to advance
into the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
World number one Wozniacki warded off late resistance from the American, ranked 84 places below her, in troublesome straight sets in almost two hours. She was facing Lepchenko for the second time after two years and after earning
this win at Royal Primerose Tennis Club, Wozniacki extended the lead in their head-to-head series by 2-0.
The seeded Dane entered nervously in the first set and held her opening serve after facing threat from the American. She clobbered two double faults and produced a poor first serve share of 48 percent though she managed an impressive
71 percent win on it. Wozniacki later lost her serve twice but made a comeback by breaking Lepchenko’s serve three times to clinch the set with a 6-4 win.
Wozniacki raised her level of game in the final set as she committed fewer errors and produced a similar first serve share of 68 percent. In addition to this, she saved four breakpoints but the two she lost, posed a great threat
later in the set. The Dane converted two out of seven breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to drag the set to tie breaker where she edged over the American to seal the set by 7-6(5) score line.
Dane is in top form this season and displayed exceptional skills to win titles at Dubai, Indian Wells and Charleston. She showed top notch performance at Doha and Stuttgart where she made a final berth. Wozniacki reached the semis
at Rome before losing to the eventual Champion Maria Sharapova and then entered this WTA Premier event in full of confidence.
Up next for the Danish number one is the sixth seeded Belgian Yanina Wickmayer. The seeded Belgian is in great form at her home soil as she overpowered qualifying top seed Kaia Kanepi in the first round and her countrywoman Alison
Van Uytvanck in the second round to reach this spot.
All other seeds advanced at the event except for the fourth seed, Jelena Jankovic who won the first set but lost her momentum in the remaining match. The Serb saved six out of eleven breakpoints faced and converted only three out
of ten breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to exit from the opening round with 6-3, 3-6, 3-6 defeat.
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