Maria Kirilenko against Caroline Wozniacki’s 5-match streak in the semis – New Haven Open 2012
Russian tennis diva, Maria Kirilenko, has continued with her sublime run of form this season and has made it to her third semi-final of the year at New Haven Open at Yale. The reigning world number 14 is enjoying her career best
ranking at the moment and is bidding for her maiden WTA championship title this week. However, she has to go through the former world number one, Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, before she can have a shot at the coveted WTA Premier Series title.
The two beauty queens will go one-on-one in the semi-final brawl of the New Haven Open on Friday afternoon, with the winner of the match getting a berth in the final of the event.
Four-time defending champion, Wozniacki, is currently 20-0 at her favourite venue and has never been defeated at New Haven in the past four years. Although she is yet to bag a championship title this season, yet her performance
in the tournament has been of top notch. She has played just matches en route to the semi-finals and both victories came in straight sets, depicting her true form and class on the hard courts of the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center.
Kirilenko has faced Wozniacki on five prior occasions but has never succeeded in hunting down the hard-hitting Dane on any occurrence. Wozniacki leads 5-0 in the all-time head-to-head series, dropping merely one set in all of these
encounters in total. They last met on the hard courts of Miami Masters in 2010, when Wozniacki had to recover from a breadstick in the opening set to seal victory at 1-6, 6-1, 6-4.
The calibre of Kirilenko has certainly improved to a great deal since then and she is inching closer to enter the elite Top-10. However, the dominance of Wozniacki in New Haven cannot be denied. She has been extremely devastating
on this particular venue over the past four years and it is probably the only reason she is rated as the hot favourite for winning the Friday’s brawl. The former world number one is very keen to bag her fifth consecutive championship title here and believes
she has a fair chance of taking down Kirilenko with ease.
"When you're winning matches you always like to come back to that place," said Wozniacki after her 20th successive victory in New Haven. "You always feel very welcome there, just very well taken care of. That's why I
enjoy it here in New Haven."
Kirilenko will be a tough competitor but Wozniacki is anticipated to win in straight sets on Friday.
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