Fifth-seeded Amelie Mauresmo and sixth-seeded Aleksandra Wozniak easily advanced to the quarter-finals of the Cincinnati Women’s Open with straight-set wins on Thursday.
Wozniak beat Julia Vakulenko of Ukraine 6-2, 6-3, before Mauresmo became the last quarter-finalist with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium.
“As I told you after my first match, I’m just looking to find my rhythm, which I found tonight,” said Mauresmo, who was ranked No. 1 in 2004 and 2006 and is playing her first tournament since Wimbledon while coming back from a thigh injury. “I was happy to not spend too much time on the court.”
PHOTO: AFP
Wozniak broke Vakulenko’s serve to clinch the first set and start a string of consecutive service breaks that reached five before the Canadian held to take a 3-2 lead in the second set. She added another break to take control before closing out the match when the Ukrainian returned a serve long.
Vakulenko, who committed 14 unforced errors in the first set and 27 in the match to Wozniak’s 14, traced her problems in part to the fractured right wrist she suffered in January.
“My arm gets really tired, and I can’t practice as much,” she said.
PHOTO: AP
Wozniak, who split her first two career matches with Vakulenko, believed her aggressiveness was the difference.
“I played some balls deep into the corners and down the middle, and she didn’t have a chance to step up and play her game,” Wozniak said.
Mauresmo’s quarter-finals opponent will be Vania King, who earned her first quarter-finals of the year with a 6-1, 6-4 win over fellow US player Jamea Jackson.
Jackson led 4-1 in the second set before King regrouped to win the last five games, capping her surge with an ace on match point.
■LEGG MASON CLASSIC
AP, WASHINGTON
Andy Roddick survived two match points to edge Eduardo Schwank in three sets on Thursday and progress to the quarter-finals of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic.
Argentine Schwank doubled faulted on the second of his match points, giving a reprieve to the top-seeded US player, who won 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2).
Roddick will meet Viktor Troicki in the quarter-finals, after the Serb beat the US’ Bobby Reynolds 6-4, 1-6, 6-4.
In a day of close second-round matches on Thursday, India’s Somdev Devvarman beat US fellow qualifier Robert Kendrick 6-2, 6-7 (5), 7-5, and Russian Igor Kunitsyn downed Italian Fabio Fognini 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (6).
Devvarman was up 4-1 in the second set but lost the lead and needed three sets to earn his second career ATP win.
So tight were all the matches that Kunitsyn only clinched his win at nearly 1:30am local time.
Roddick appeared to take the drama out of the third set when he grabbed a 4-1 lead. But Schwank stormed back and broke Roddick’s serve twice to go up 5-4 and serve for the match.
Schwank, who started the year ranked No. 171 and has risen to 56th, built a 40-15 lead for his match-point opportunities but his double fault seemed to turn the momentum in Roddick’s favor.
Once the match went to the tiebreaker, Roddick took control. He earned a roar from the home crowd with a winner down the line to go up 5-1 and capped the win with two strong serves Schwank had trouble returning.
Roddick said late in the match he noticed Schwank relying more on a serve-and-volley game, shying away from Roddick’s more aggressive play.
The two-hour, 43-minute match showed early on it would be a marathon. The sixth game of the first set went to deuce 13 times, with Roddick unable to convert any of seven break points.
Roddick was nearly broken again in the next game. After going down 40-0, he hit a ball over the stands and out of the stadium in frustration before coming back to hold serve.
“I was pretty mad,” Roddick said. “I played a horrible service game the next one and somehow got through it.”
Roddick broke Schwank for the first time in the second set’s final game. This time, Schwank’s drop attempt went into the net.
Roddick was satisfied with the victory despite being forced into a scrap with a lower-ranked opponent.
“I felt like I was on the verge of doing a lot of the right things tonight,” Roddick said. “When you can take someone’s best and fight them off and fight them off and fight them off and fight them off and finally, three hours later get the win, it’s a good feeling.”
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