Wozniacki works overtime to move into second round
Former No. 1 avoids first-up loss for third time in last four events
doha — Former No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki worked overtime at the Qatar Open on Monday to avoid a first-up loss for the third time in her last four tournaments.
Wozniacki, whose ranking has dropped to No. 22, overcame Croatian qualifier Ana Konjuh 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.
After dropping the first set, Wozniacki seemed in control when she won the second and raced to 5-2 in the third.
But Konjuh went for risky shots and was rewarded with success as she clawed back to 5-5. She went on to save eight match points before finally succumbing.
“A win is a win. I am going to take it and I am happy,” Wozniacki said. “It’s the first match and you just want to get going. I wasn’t hitting it well.”
In the second round, she will meet Australia’s Daria Gavrilova, who beat Japan’s Misaki Doi 6-1,
A win is a win. I am going to take it and I am happy
Saisai shows the door to Kerber
Caroline Wozniacki
6-1. US Open champion Roberta Vinci celebrated her rise into the top 10 by putting away Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine 6-2, 6-1, and Italian compatriot Sara Errani, fresh off winning the Dubai Championships on Saturday, defeated Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria 1-6, 7-5, 6-3.
Another former US Open champ, Svetlana Kuznetsova, beat Julia Goerges of Germany 6-3, 6-3, while the only upset on the day was 15th-seeded Elina Svitolina of Ukraine falling to Denisa Allertova of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-4.
The top eight seeds, led by Australian Open champ Angelique Kerber of Germany, have a bye to the second round. DOHA — New Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber crashed out of the Qatar Open on Tuesday, in her first singles tournament since winning in Melbourne last month.
An out-of-sorts Kerber lost her second round match — she received a first round bye — in straight sets 7-5, 6-1 to China’s Zheng Saisai, who is ranked 71 places below the world number two. In a lacklustre performance, the German lost her serve six times, hit 38 unforced errors — Saisai hit only eight — and was beaten in just one hour and eighteen minutes as her opponent dominated.
The second set took just 28 minutes as Kerber’s game collapsed. Kerber, who has not played any singles tournaments since beating Serena Williams in Melbourne on January 30, grew increasingly exasperated with her form on a blustery night in Doha and at one point could be heard telling her coach Torben Beltz that she was tired and had no energy. The Poland-based German said she did not know if her poor performance was down to a lack of match fitness or not being able to respond to the new pressure of being a Grand Slam champion. “I don’t know if it was the pressure or not. I know, of course, pressures from the last years, but maybe it was both,” she told reporters. A delighted Saisai plays Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard who beat the Czech Republic’s Denisa Allertova 7-6 (7-0), 7-5. —