Pursuing another bid for her first Grand Slam title, top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki needed little more than an hour to beat Virginie Razzano 6-1, 6-3 yesterday and move into the third round of Wimbledon.
The 20-year-old Dane was at the top of her game, making only one unforced error as she downed the No. 96 Frenchwoman in 66 minutes in sunny conditions on Court 2 at the All England Club.
Wozniacki has reached the fourth round at Wimbledon for the past two years, but has never made it to the quarter-finals. Despite her No. 1 ranking, she has never won a major title, losing in the 2009 US Open final.
Photo: AFP
Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan and her partner Monica Niculescu won their women’s double match, which had been postponed from the day before, defeating Alberta Brianti and Eleni Daniilidou 6-4, 1-6, 6-1.
On Thursday, Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun downed 13th seed Viktor Troicki 7-6 (7/5), 6-4, 6-4 as Troicki became the highest-seeded man to go out at that point. Lu reached the quarter-finals last year.
In women’s doubles action, Taiwan’s Chang Kai-chen and American partner Jill Craybas were crushed by Ana Ivanovic and Andrea Petkovic 6-1, 6-2.
Photo: Reuters
Elsewhere, French Open champion Li Na squandered two match points and lost German wildcard Sabine Lisicki, the biggest upset of the tournament so far.
The 62nd-ranked Lisicki erased both match points with service winners in the ninth game of the third set and beat the third-seeded Chinese player 3-6, 6-4, 8-6 under the roof on Centre Court. Other winners on Day 4 included six-time champion Roger Federer, women’s defending titlist Serena Williams and second-seeded Novak Djokovic.
After Li hit a forehand long on Lisicki’s third match point, the 21-year-old German fell to her knees at the baseline and put her head to the turf. She broke into tears at her courtside chair.
Photo: AFP
Li was up 4-2 in the third set and twice served for the match, but was broken each time. She had won 14 of her previous 15 Grand Slam matches this year, reaching the final at the Australian Open, then becoming China’s first major singles champion at Roland Garros last month.
Lisicki has now won 12 of her last 13 matches on grass, including reaching the Wimbledon quarter-finals in 2009 and winning a tuneup tournament in Birmingham this month. She missed five months last season with a left ankle injury and she fell out of the top 200 in the rankings.
At 5-3 down in the third, Lisicki fell behind 15-40 on her serve and faced two match points. She came up with two service winners at more than 193kph and two straight aces — including a 200kph delivery, the fastest by any woman this year.
Li served for the match at 5-4 and 6-5, but couldn’t convert.
Federer, playing the last match on Centre Court, needed only 1 hour, 28 minutes to put away Adrian Mannarino of France, 6-2, 6-3, 6-2. With his parents watching from the Royal Box, the third-seeded Swiss finished the match in style — soaring high in the air for a flying overhead smash.
Earlier, Williams recovered from a poor start to defeat Romania’s Simona Halep 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 and move into the third round, staying on course for a fifth title.
In men’s play, Djokovic swept into the third round by beating South Africa’s Kevin Anderson 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 on Court 1. The Serb has won his opening two rounds in straight sets after his 43-match winning streak was ended by Federer in the French Open semi-finals.
In a dramatic five-setter that lasted nearly four hours, No. 5 Robin Soderling came from two sets down to overcome 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt 6-7 (7/5), 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 in a second-round match played under the Centre Court roof.
No. 12 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga rallied for a 6-7 (7/4), 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (10/8) win over 20-year-old Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov. The Frenchman jumped over the net and helped up his opponent in a sporting gesture after the deciding tiebreaker.
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