Top seed Caroline Wozniacki yesterday was bundled out of the ASB Classic in the second round, beaten in straight sets by 18-year-old Canadian Bianca Andreescu.
It was a blow for Wozniacki, who was looking for as much court time as she could get in Auckland on her way to defending her Australian Open crown.
She was beaten 6-4, 6-4 by the Canadian No. 152, who had to play her way through the qualifying tournament to make the main draw, and was overcoming a back injury and a cold.
“Honestly, I can’t believe it,” said Andreescu, who was nearly speechless at having beaten Wozniacki to set up a quarter-final against Venus Williams, who progressed to the final eight with a 6-4, 6-3 win over fellow American Lauren Davis.
“First I have to swallow this one and then I’ll think about tomorrow, but I’m honestly really excited just being here,” Andreescu said. “I’ve dreamt of playing on this stage against hard players, and now I’m here I played against one of the best and I won so really, I don’t know what to say.”
Andreescu needed a medical time-out at the start of the second set for her back injury, but she still managed to chase down shots and win vital points.
The teen played herself to a standstill, keeping rallies alive with a mix of well-angled strokes from the baseline and delicate drop-shots until Wozniacki made mistakes.
Wozniacki did produce glimpses of her best and determinedly leveled at 4-4 in the first set when she took Andreescu’s serve in a 12-minute, seven-deuce game, but Andreescu immediately broke again and held serve for the set, before breaking Wozniacki twice in the second set.
Andreescu has won Australian Open and French Open junior doubles titles and was ranked No. 3 as a junior.
The result would have surprised Williams, who had earlier spoken of how she expected to meet Wozniacki in the quarter-finals.
“That’ll be a great match up. Finals-worthy, but it’s the quarter-finals and we’ll battle it out,” Williams had said after beating Davis.
Williams, seeded sixth in Auckland, broke Davis for the first time in the sixth game of the first set and took control from there.
On a day dominated by teenagers, 17-year-old American Amanda Anisimova stunned fifth seed Barbora Strycova 6-3, 6-3.
Anisimova, ranked 96th in the world and the youngest player in the top 100, never dropped a game against the Czech veteran and cashed in on all three break points that went her way.
Anisimova is to play big-serving Viktoria Kuzmova from Slovakia in the quarter-finals after Kuzmova fired down 20 aces when dispatching American Sofia Kenin 7-5, 5-7, 6-3.
In the other quarter-finals, second seed Julia Goerges is to play Eugenie Bouchard and third seed Hsieh Su-wei is up against Sara Sorribes Tormo.
Additional reporting by AP
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