Caroline and the Teenager

Three days after Ashleigh Barty took a set off Cibulkova, another 16 year old with prodigious talent showed up for a hit of tennis with one of the seeds.  Croatia's Donna Vekic, on cloud nine after thrashing Andrea Hlavackova in the first round, thought having a crack at former number one Caroline Wozniacki was a cool idea on a hot Melbourne Day.  So here we were to watch maybe one of the early baby steps in the career of a future star.

Apart from the first couple of points Caroline was sharp, hitting close to the lines and making things difficult for Donna.  The Danish service hold achieved, Wozniacki set about showing who is boss and although the Croatian fought hard, the consistency and depth of the Wozniacki game made the difference and caused the service break.

The talent possessed by Vekic is apparent and she demonstrated some of it in the third game.  A duo of clear winners unsettled Wozniacki and the break back resulted. 1-2 and on serve.  Experience of Caroline kicked in at this stage and perhaps the excitement affected the shot making and shot selection of the teenager.

Making a host of unforced errors Donna surrendered any positives from the third game by gifting Wozniacki the fourth game and the momentum.  As with Sabine Lisicki, Caroline feasted on the mounting errors and did not need to play luscious strokes for potential clean winners; she just played close to the lines point after point and drew the mistakes from her opponent.  The 10th seed won the set 6-1, claiming another break on the way through.

Set 2 began with more promise for Donna as she held on to the opening serve.  Caroline replied in kind and then it was time to break into the young Croatian's fun and games by incorporating two successive breaks of serve into the mix. Donna didn't object since she contributed much of the reason for the service losses.  4-1 with her reliable serve to come and we could wrap this one up and put on the ribbon pretty soon.

However Donna had saved a special treat for the party and she presented it to Caroline with great passing shots included, the break a tremendous surprise but not all that well received I must say, considering the time and care put in to the giving.  Vekic kept up the pace by holding serve and winning successive games for the first time in the match.

Serves by both girls were held for the remainder of the match and Caroline Wozniacki won the battle for a third round appointment with Lesia Tsurenko. 6-1 6-4