By Chris Oddo | Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Victoria Azarenka overcame some more serving troubles to dispatch Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets on Wednesday in Rome.
Photo Source: Christopher Levy.
For the second consecutive day Victoria Azarenka was her own worst enemy at times, particularly from the service stripe, but in the end Azarenka was good enough to nail down a 6-2, 7-6(2) victory over 5th-seeded Caroline Wozniacki.
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After rallying from a break deficit, Azarenka failed to convert on four match points while serving for the second set at 6-5, delivering ill-timed double-faults on two of them.
But Azarenka responded in the tiebreaker to clinch her fourth consecutive victory over Wozniacki and set up a round of 16 encounter with Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu.
Azarenka improved to 7-3 vs. the Top 20 with the win, and is now 2-2 vs. the Top 5 this season.
In improving form, and with only one win to defend between now and the end of Wimbledon, Azarenka appears to be headed back to the Top 20, possibly the Top 10.
But all is not perfect in her camp.
After nervously blowing three match points against Serena Williams in Madrid last week, and struggling to keep it together both mentally and physically during yesterday’s first-round encounter with Lucie Hradecka, the world No. 29 dominated Wozniacki from the baseline for much of their match.
She was good enough to rally from 4-2, 40-0 down to lead 6-5 in set two, but lost her focus when attempting to close out the match on serve.
Azarenka ripped 42 winners against 33 unforced errors on the day, cranking a forehand down-the-line winner to close the tiebreaker and improve her record to 2-0 vs. Wozniacki on clay.
"We've played so many times now, and this year too, and she's always a tough opponent,” Azarenka said, according to WTATennis.com. “It had been a while since we played on clay, so I knew I had to step up my game and try to do my best, because she's been playing well.”
In other late afternoon action in Rome, Venus Williams finished off world No. 19 Elina Svitolina, 6-4, 6-3, to set up an intriguing round of 16 clash with Simona Halep.
Earlier in the day, Halep raced past American Alison Riske. The Romanian has lost all three of her previous encounters with Williams, but the pair have not met since 2013.
10th-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro was also a winner on Wednesday. She shellacked Great Britain’s Heather Watson, 6-1, 6-1, to set up a round of 16 encounter with Eugenie Bouchard. Bouchard snapped a 6-match losing streak with a straight-sets win over Kazakhstan’s Zarina Diyas.
Upsets Hit Rome
Five Seeds were unceremoniously bounced from the draw on a busy Wednesday, as [7] Ana Ivanovic, [9] Angelique Kerber, [12] Lucie Safarova, [13] Sara Errani and [15] Madison Keys all fell.