Top Seeds Wozniacki and Keys Ousted in Wuhan

September 29, 2015 | By New York Tennis Magazine Staff
Caroline_Wozniacki (1)

The star-studded draw in Wuhan, China this week lost a few of its top players on Tuesday, as fourth-seed Caroline Wozniacki, 11th-seeded Belinda Bencic and 14th seed Madison Keys were all ousted in their respective second-round matchups.

Wozniacki seemed to be cruising early on in her match, but Anna Karolina Schmiedlova stormed back from a set down to upset the Dane 1-6, 6-4, 7-6(6) and reach the third-round of the Wuhan Open.

After falling down a set, Schmiedlova actually trailed 1-4 in the second set and was on her way to a loss. But the Slovak staged a great comeback, generating much more power and energy on her shots than Wozniacki, and completing the comeback in a third-set tiebreaker.

It is Schmiedlova’s first win in her career over a top 10 opponent.

“I’m working hard and I never thought that I would have such a good ranking and have won two WTA tournaments,” she said. “Hopefully I can still go further this week. I’m so happy and this season is already like a dream for me.”

She will look to continue that dream when she takes on fellow WTA Rising Star Kristina Mladenovic of France.

Mladenovic hung on to beat 14th-seeded Madison Keys on Tuesday, knocking off the American 7-5, 1-6, 6-2 to advance.

She converted just five of her 15 break point chances but it was enough to gain the key break advantage in the final set.

The 11th-seeded Bencic and unseeded Victoria Azarenka both retired while trailing by a set in their matches on Tuesday.

Italian Camila Giorgi led 6-2 over Bencic before the Switzerland native retired with a leg injury. British qualifier Johanna Konta, who reached the Round of 16 of the U.S. Open recently, led 6-4, 1-0 over Azarenka before the Belarus native retired with a thigh injury.

“I was happy with the things that I was able to control,” said Konta. “I’m not in control of how she’s feeling and what she’s going to do but I can control how I react to things, and I thought I did quite well with that.”

Konta moves on to play the winner of Simona Halep and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, while Giorgi will take on sixth-seed Angelique Kerber who ousted Jelena Jankovic 6-4, 2-6, 6-2.

American Venus Williams and Serb Ana Ivanovic continued to impress with their outings in Wuhan as both rolled to straight-set win on Tuesday.

Venus won the 700th match of her career with a 6-4, 6-3 win over German qualifier Julia Goerges.

“I’m glad nobody told me before—I would have been a little bit nervous,” said Venus about the milestone afterwards. “It was a good match, a quality player. I had never played her before, so that was also an experience in itself. I was thinking, ‘How long would it take me to get to 800 now?’ Maybe that was my first thought!

But it’s been a great 700 wins along the way.”

She will look to make it 701 wins when she takes on seventh-seeded Spaniard Carla Suarez-Navarro in a third-round matchup. Suarez-Navarro defeated Monica Niculescu 5-7, 6-3, 6-4.

Ivanovic had no problems with American Madison Brengle, needing just one hour and 12 minutes to come away with a 6-0, 6-3 win.

The Serb saved all 10 of the break points she faced, and dug deep each time Brengle had a chance to break. She moves on to face fifth-seed Garbine Muguruza, who cruised past American Sloane Stephens 6-2, 6-0.

American Coco Vandeweghe, third-seed Petra Kvitova, 12th seed Elina Svitolina and 15th seed Roberta Vinci rounded out Tuesday’s winners. 


New York Tennis Magazine Staff
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