Wozniacki defeats Ivanovic in China Open quarters
Caroline Wozniacki has overcome Ana Ivanovic and a knee injury to win through to the semi-finals at the China Open in Beijing.
In the clash of the newly anointed world No. 1 and a player who has been there before but since lost her mojo (though she is currently making serious inroads in the quest to regain her old form), it was Wozniacki who secured the first break of serve and with it a 4-2 lead in the first set.
Just as quickly as the Dane established the buffer though, she handed Ivanovic the break back with a double fault on break point in the next game.
Having proven her mental toughness in two tiebreak sets in her third round match against Elena Dementieva, Ivanovic was again forced to dig deep in the 10th game of the set, with some poor play leaving the Serb facing triple set point against Wozniacki.
Three strong points later and the scores were back to deuce, and with an ace saving a fourth, Ivanovic survived to level the scores at 5-5 as from there the set headed to a tiebreak.
After such a tightly contested set – where Ivanovic unleashed that massive forehand time and time again and Wozniacki in customary counterpunching style absorbed the power and waited for her moment to take the upper hand in the point – the tiebreak was one way traffic, with the 20-year-old winning the first six points and ultimately sealing the set on her sixth attempt to take a 1-0 lead over Ivanovic.
The beginning of the second set too was dominated by Wozniacki as she quickly took a 2-0 lead, but at 3-1 up the top seed landed awkwardly on her knee behind the baseline. Though her initial reaction was indicative of serious damage, she returned to the court with her left knee heavily strapped to continue the contest.
A second break of the set followed for Wozniacki, but Ivanovic broke back on the first occasion the Dane served for the match and held serve to force opponent to make a second attempt to serve for a place in the semi-finals.
Ivanovic weathered one match point but sent her forehand return into the net on the second as Wozniacki won through to the final four 7-6(1), 6-4.
China’s Li Na also today booked her place in the semis, with a 7-6(6), 6-3 win over Anastasija Sevastova to reach the final four in her home tournament for the first time.
After going down a break twice in the opening set, Li gained the chance to serve for the 1-0 lead in the match when the Latvian double-faulted on break point in the eighth game.
Facing triple break point in that next game, Li returned the favour – a double handing Sevastova the chance to serve to stay in the topsy-turvy set, which was eventually decided in favour of the local player.
The ninth seed built on that momentum by securing the break in the opening game of the second set, but wobbled when serving for the match, with the qualifier saving match point before Li eventually ran out the straight sets winner.
Vera Zvonareva, who made short work of French Open champion Francesca Schiavone with a 6-0, 6-2, win will take on Li in the semi-finals.
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