By Erik Gudris | Saturday, March 28, 2015
Caroline Wozniacki battled through a tough opponent and the wind in Miami while Eugenie Bouchard suffered another early round exit.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Tricky opponents and windy conditions continues testing top seeds in the women's draw at this week's Miami Open.
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The wind played havoc with No. 4 seed Caroline Wozniacki and her trademark consistent game on Saturday as she faced off against Estonia's Kaia Kanepi in their third round match.
Wozniacki's consistency versus Kanepi's big ball striking promised an intriguing encounter. Yet windy conditions proved troublesome for both women as each struggled throughout.
Kanepi claimed the opening set 6-4 by taking advantage of an uncharacteristic 20 unforced errors from Wozniacki. Momentum shifted in Wozniacki's favor in the early games of the second set as she jumped out to a 2-0 lead.
With Kanepi now only serving at 28% first serves, that allowed Wozniacki to early wrap up the set 6-1.
The final set still proved too close to call. Wozniacki broke her opponent to start in the first game. While Kanepi continued to rack up more errors, she still found potent winners when needed. That included a huge forehand crosscourt return winner that allowed to her break back for 1-all.
Wozniacki broke again later to take a 3-2 lead. Kanepi found herself with break point chances in the next game but found herself just missing on several would-be winners. That allowed Wozniacki to hang on for a 4-2 lead.
Even when Wozniacki served for the match up 5-2, things weren't assured for the recent US Open finalist. Wozniacki dropped her serve and that let Kanepi back in. Though Kanepi looked poised to pull within a game, her mounting unforced errors kept getting in the way.
A failed lob attempt from Kanepi soon created match point for her opponent. Kanepi hit an inopportune double fault and with that allowed Wozniacki to walk away with the 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 win.
Wozniacki hit just 13 winners and 43 unforced errors compared to Kanepi's 24 winners yet overwhelming 60 unforced errors.
Even Wozniacki admitted it was "unusual" during her on-court interview to see such a big number of unforced errors next to her name.
"I don't know. It was windy out there today and I think the stats will show that, because there were a lot of unforced errors," Wozniacki said. "It was tough to get a rhythm out there. Tough with the ball toss because the ball was flying everywhere."
Next for Wozniacki will be the winner of the Venus Williams versus Sam Stosur match.
Bouchard Exits Miami Early
While Maria Sharapova and her unexpected early loss is still causing shockwaves at the event, another woman named Maria pulled off a surprise win of her own.
World No. 113 Tatjana Maria of Germany qualified for the main draw but appeared not to be bothered at the prospect of playing No. 6 seed Eugenie Bouchard.
Maria rolled off a 6-0 first set against a flat-looking Bouchard.
Though Bouchard managed to make the second set closer and eventually served for the set, she couldn't prevent Maria from forcing a tiebreak.
Maria would go on to close out the match 6-0, 7-6(4) to reach the third round.
Bouchard continues having a tough season as she has not advanced past the fourth round of any event since reaching the Australian Open quarterfinals in January.