Top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki rallied from 4-2 down in the third set to defeat Yanina Wickmayer 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 and reach the Family Circle Cup semi-finals on Friday.
It was another tight match for Wozniacki, who needed to two tiebreakers a day earlier to beat Barbora Zahlavova Strycova. In this one, Wickmayer looked like the steadier player, winning points with deep forehands and pushing Wozniacki all over the court. Wickmayer kept the pressure on in the second set as she took a 3-1 lead against the Dane.
However, as Wozniacki did against Zahlavova Strycova, she pulled herself up with a string of laser forehands and well-placed shots. Wozniacki won five of final six games to even the match.
Photo: Reuters
Again, Wickmayer grabbed control in the decisive set, breaking Wozniacki on the way to her 4-2 lead.
Wozniacki won the next game at love, then broke Wickmayer’s serve. When Wickmayer threatened to break a game later, Wozniacki pounded a huge serve that her opponent couldn’t handle.
Wickmayer sailed a forehand wide and Wozniacki was in front for good. Wickmayer had little left in her final service game, which Wozniacki took to love to win the match.
“In every match, she finds a way to get out of it and beat her opponent,” Wickmayer said. “That’s most important.”
Wozniacki pumped her fist and smiled widely when Wickmayer’s shot went out, then waved and blew kisses to the crowd at stadium court.
“I mean, it’s unbelievable. Everyone is cheering for me and it’s such a great feeling,” she said. “I feel like a local, really.”
Wozniacki has stuck around deep into the tournament the three times she’s played. In 2009, she reached the final before losing to Sabine Lisicki. A year ago, she was in the semi-finals when she had to retire with an ankle injury.
Wozniacki was due to face a difficult semi-final yesterday against Jelena Jankovic, who ended the run of 18-year-old American Christina McHale 6-2, 6-0.
Jankovic, 26, reached No. 1 in the world in 2008 and understands better than anyone the pressure that comes with that position. And Jankovic, who has not dropped a set in her first three matches, is playing as well as anyone left, including Wozniacki.
Jankovic, the 2007 champion here, has won four of five career meetings with Wozniacki. None of those, however, took place on the slower, green clay at Family Circle Tennis Center.
“She’s a great athlete,” Jankovic said of Wozniacki. “She really runs a lot of balls down and doesn’t give you anything.”
The other semi-final was to feature 11th-seeded Peng Shuai against Elena Vesnina, the only unseeded player among the final four. Peng defeated Sania Mirza 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 while Vesnina beat No. 12 seed Julia Goerges, also by 2-6, 6-2, 6-2.
US CLAY COURT
AFP, HOUSTON, TEXAS
Rising Japanese star Kei Nishikori demolished US No. 1 Mardy Fish 6-3, 6-2 in the quarter-finals of the US Clay Court Championship on Friday.
Nishikori did not face a single break point in the match as he ousted the top seed from the tournament in stunning fashion.
Nishikori was due to face Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay in yesterday’s semi-finals. Cuevas beat third-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 1-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3.
World No. 61 Nishikori hit one ace and five double faults but won 96 percent of first serve points in his first career meeting against Fish.
“I was hitting good returns,” Nishikori said. “That’s one of the things I did great today. I played good enough to beat him and played good clay court tennis.”
“I don’t think he played great today, he was missing a lot,” Nishikori said.
Fish has had a mixed year, making two semis in Delray Beach and Memphis but losing in the second round of both the Australian Open and at Indian Wells.
Qualifier Ivo Karlovic of Croatia hammered 24 aces in beating fourth-seeded John Isner 7-6 (7/2), 6-7 (2/7), 7-6 (11/9) in a match lasting more than three hours.
The 2.08m Karlovic — the tallest player on the ATP Tour — usually towers over his opponents but not this time. He and the 2.06m Isner blasted 47 total aces between them.
“Now I know what it’s like to play me,” Karlovic said. “It’s really not easy. I was trying to stay confident even if he was acing me left and right. I tried to stay calm and in the end, I don’t know what to say. I was a little luckier. It was a close match.”
Karlovic clinched the win with a forehand that clipped the line.
Isner challenged but the ruling stood.
“I knew it was in because I saw it skid,” Karlovic said.
Ryan Sweeting of the US reached his first career semi-final with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 victory over Teymuraz Gabashvili.
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