World No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki saw off Elena Dementieva in a tough battle to win the Pan Pacific Open women’s tennis tournament yesterday.
The Danish top seed, who crashed out in her opening matches in her previous two visits to Tokyo, made it third time lucky with a 1-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory over the Beijing Olympic gold medalist from Russia.
Seventh seed Dementieva got off to a flying start, racing to a 4-0 first set lead with an array of winners from the baseline.
By contrast Wozniacki failed to hit a single winner from the baseline and had to wait until Dementieva mishit a shot in the fifth game to hold for 1-4.
Wozniacki saved two set points in the fifth game before double faulting to lose the set.
After missing a couple of break points in the first game of the second set, Wozniacki took a 2-1 lead when Dementieva hit a backhand into the net and went on to win the set.
After an exchange of breaks in the final set, Wozniacki added another in the seventh game to move up 4-3 as a Dementieva forehand hit the net.
The error seemed to hit Dementieva hard and the two-hour match came to an abrupt end when the Russian double faulted twice in a row on match point.
“In the first set I didn’t get the ball in a way I wanted, but in the second set, I stepped up a little bit, and we had two close sets, and I’m happy that I’m standing here as the winner,” Wozniacki said. “I won the important points and I just kept fighting. I’m happy that I won the last point.”
It was her fifth title of the season, following triumphs at Ponte Vedra Beach, Copenhagen, -Montreal and New Haven, and 11th overall and earned her the top prize of US$350,000.
Wozniacki, who avenged her defeat by Dementieva in the 2008 Olympics round of 16, also took the lead in the pair’s head-to-head record. She now has four wins and three defeats against the Russian.
The 20-year-old Dane, who could take the world No. 1 spot next week at the China Open, eliminated her good friends Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland and Victoria Azarenka of Belarus on her way to the final.
? CHINA OPEN
AFP, BEIJING
World No. 6 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia opened her China Open campaign yesterday with a gritty straight sets win over Czech veteran Klara Zakopalova, as play got under way in the women’s draw.
Jankovic, the third seed in Beijing and the only seeded player in action yesterday, slugged it out with Zakopalova from the baseline, but eventually capitalized on the Czech’s weak serving, breaking her a total of seven times.
The 25-year-old Serb — trying to rebound from an early loss to Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi in the Pan Pacific Open this week in Tokyo — also kept Zakopalova off-balance by mixing her heavy groundstrokes with the occasional lob.
The former world No. 1 admitted she had struggled to recover from an ankle injury suffered after Wimbledon, but said she hoped to do well in Beijing as a stepping stone to the season-ending -championships in Doha.
In other first-round play, Swiss veteran left-hander Patty Schnyder breezed through her opening match, defeating Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova 6-1, 6-4.
The 31-year-old Schnyder, ranked 44th in the world, overwhelmed the Kazakh with her power from the baseline, sealing the victory with a wicked forehand winner down the line.
Germany’s Andrea Petkovic and Olga Govortsova of Belarus advanced easily.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set