Caroline Wozniacki was dumped from the Sydney International yesterday, opening the way for rival Petra Kvitova to seize the world No. 1 ranking heading into next week’s Australian Open.
Wozniacki crashed out to Polish world No. 8 Agnieszka Radwanska 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 in the quarter-finals after being broken while serving out for the match at 5-4 in the second set.
Radwanska will now face Belarussian third seed Victoria Azarenka in today’s semis, with Kvitova lining up against Chinese defending champion Li Na in the day’s other semi-final.
Photo: Reuters
Wimbledon champion Kvitova had an emphatic straight-sets victory over Daniela Hantuchova, while world No. 5 Li downed Czech Lucie Safarova 6-2, 7-6 (7/3).
Kvitova is on track to take the No. 1 ranking by winning the tournament.
Wozniacki, whose tenure at the top of the women’s singles rankings comes despite not yet winning a Grand Slam in 19 attempts, was taken to a third set by Radwanska after appearing to be in a winning position.
Photo: Reuters
The Dane seemed troubled by a left-wrist injury as Radwanska broke her three times in the final to claim only her second victory in seven meetings.
Earlier, Kvitova reeled off the opening eight games before dishing out a 6-0, 6-4 victory over Hantuchova, the Slovak No. 21.
Kvitova, who like Li has been in top form in preparation for the season’s first Grand Slam in Melbourne, swept to victory breaking Hantuchova’s service five times for her fourth win over the Slovakian.
Photo: AFP
Li said she was playing her best tennis since before last year’s Wimbledon as she battled into the semi-finals.
The world No. 5 needed 1 hour, 50 minutes to subdue battling Czech Safarova in blustery conditions to move into the last four in the defense of the Sydney title she won last year.
It was Li’s third win this week, continuing her upsurge in form after a dismal follow-up to her landmark French Open success at Roland Garros, which saw her become the first Asian to win a Grand Slam title.
Li, 29, was clearly relieved to have put her problems of the second half of last year behind her and is eyeing back-to-back Sydney finals.
“Of course I’m feeling good,” she said. “Win here last year and this year reach the semis in just the beginning of the year, yeah, I am feeling much, much stronger.”
Belarussian Azarenka downed France’s Marion Bartoli 7-5, 6-4 in their quarter-final.
In the men’s matches, Juan Martin del Potro brushed aside Lukasz Kubot to reach the quarter-finals as the Argentine edges closer to cracking the top 10 rankings.
World No. 11 del Potro, clawing his way back after a career-threatening wrist injury, downed the 58th-ranked Polish player 6-4, 6-2 in blustery conditions on the Ken Rosewall Arena.
The 2009 US Open champion and Sydney top seed will take on unseeded Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis in the quarter-finals.
Baghdatis, the 2010 Sydney champion, took more than two hours to subdue Australia’s Matthew Ebden 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7/3).
American second seed John Isner crashed out 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 to compatriot Bobby Reynolds, who will face Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen in the last eight.
Nieminen, a runner-up in Sydney three years ago, accounted for eighth seed Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 7-6 (7/5), 5-7, 6-1.
French third seed Richard Gasquet cruised past Italian Fabio Fognini in straight sets and will take on Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin in the quarters.
Two more men’s seeds were knocked out late yesterday, with Frenchman Julien Benneteau accounting for fourth-seeded Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 6-4 and Russia’s Alex Bogomolov Jr eliminating Serbian fifth seed Viktor Troicki 7-6 (7/5), 6-4.
KOOYONG CLASSIC
AFP, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
A jet-lagged Jo-Wilfried Tsonga paid the price for a flight halfway round the world yesterday as he lost his Kooyong Classic opener in straight sets to Austria’s Jurgen Melzer.
The 6-4, 6-3 defeat in cold and blustery conditions drops the French world No. 6 into the relegation round, where he will face Milos Raonic of Canada, who won the Chennai Open in India last week.
The eight-man Kooyong tournament, where players face three matches in the space of four days, is a key warm-up for the Australian Open.
Tsonga recorded the best Grand Slam performance of his career when he reached the Australian Open final in 2008, but admitted he had not adjusted to the time difference from Doha, where he won the Qatar Open on Saturday.
“I’m not feeling very well. I still have jet lag. We train a lot and we all want to be ready for the Open. Today was difficult with the conditions,” he said.
His compatriot Gael Monfils, the losing finalist in Doha, came up a winner as he beat three-time Kooyong champion Andy Roddick 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/3). He will next play Bernard Tomic.
“It was a tough match, very windy,” said Monfils, Kooyong runner-up last year. “I stayed focused and won it. This is good Australian Open preparation. Andy is always tough, this was a good match.”
Raonic lost 6-1, 6-2 to American Mardy Fish, who will play world No. 33 Melzer in the promotion round.
Australia’s 19-year-old Tomic, ranked 37th, began living up to local expectations as he bids to fill the shoes of fading hero Lleyton Hewitt, scoring a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over the Czech Republic’s Tomas Berdych.
He also struggled with the wind, calling the game he had to play on court “not tennis.”
Tsonga had beaten the 30-year-old Melzer in both of their two previous meetings in 2008.
“We had really tough conditions, but when the wind wasn’t blowing I hit some good shots,” Melzer said. “It’s always good to get a win over a top 10 guy. I had some good form today. I hope to keep it up this week and straight through to the Open.”
HOBART INTERNATIONAL
REUTERS, WITH STAFF WRITER
Second seed Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain crashed out of the Hobart International yesterday, losing in straight sets to Germany’s Mona Barthel 6-1, 6-4.
In other action, fifth seed Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia shrugged off a disappointing second set to defeat compatriot Anastasia Rodionova 6-3, 1-6, 6-4.
Israel’s sixth seed Shahar Peer managed to fend off hard-charging Kiwi Sacha Jones 7-6 (9/7), 6-4.
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