Wednesday 18 January 2012

Sweet Caroline

Good times never seemed so good for the world number one as her form decreed in her absolute thrashing of Anastasia Rodionova in round one. Her second round competition originated in Georgia, not the one Ray Charles had on his mind. Anna Tatishvili also mad few friends in her first round match when dispatching another Australian and hopefully next big thing Ashleigh Barty.

Wozniacki's serve is the one area of her game that, to me at least, looks to have gained in power and reliability, making the overall Danish package potentially more lethal and an increased chance of one day soon assisting Caroline achieve Grand Slam singles glory.

The Danish star had to absorb the pressure from Tatishvili when the Georgian fired winning passes down the line - I counted three or four instances of this, but I may be exaggerating a touch. Wozniacki played as if this were part two of the Rodionova massacre - different time, different place, different victim, but ever the same brilliance and class of shot making.

The contrast in pace of point winning between this and the Jankovic match was obvious - Wozniacki does most of the things that Jelena does but just a fraction better. The first set achieved its finality in the blink of an eye - a thirty or so minute blink. 6-1 to Denmark.

The wind must have changed very suddenly for Caroline no longer was sweeping all before her in the second set - in fact the wind was blowing it back in her face. Anna held her serve and placed pressure on Wozniacki for the first time this Open. The break of serve came in the fourth game and Anna maintained the edge to 4-2. Realizing the peril, Caroline drew on reserves to break back and at 3-4 sanity appeared to have returned. Both girls amidst the chaos still entertained with some wonderful albeit irregular shot making, and the concentration of the Georgian player paid off when she prevented Wozniacki drawing level at 4-4.

Serving to level at a set apiece, nerves took over completely and an error ridden game provided the number one seed another escape valve. Serving at 4-5 after an injury time out, Wozniacki managed to avoid losing the set and had the poise to again level at 5-5. Tatishvili then served a rollercoaster of a game featuring several game points, and a few chances for Caroline to force a break. The crowd remained transfixed while the girls battled out to a conclusion approved of only by Anna as she now led 6-5.

The twelfth game featured further riveting tennis, the highlight of which was the point of the match, full of amazing ground strokes and capacity to reach out of reach balls. At the end of all that we had a tie break - only fitting.

The tie break lead initially belonged to Caroline and although Anna fought hard, the best she could do was level at one stage. Once 5-2 had been achieved, Caro waltzed home to a victory which seemed plain sailing half way through but in the end was extremely hard fought.
Wozniacki 6-1 7-6.

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