By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Qualifier Monica Puig converted her seventh match point defeating Caroline Wozniacki, 7-6 (10), 7-5, to charge into her third quarterfinal in her last four tournaments.
Photo credit: Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open Facebook
Early preparation is essential to beating elite opponents.
Qualifier Monica Puig played proactive tennis scoring her sixth Top 10 win at the Wuhan Open.
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Puig converted her seventh match point defeating Caroline Wozniacki, 7-6 (10), 7-5, to charge into her third quarterfinal in her last four tournaments.
The Puerto Rican baseliner carried pure party motivation on court today: Puig celebrates her 25th birthday tomorrow and was intent on delivering an early present.
"I had a bit of motivation because tomorrow's my birthday so it was a good present for me today," said Puig, who defeated the Australian Open champion for the second time this season following her triumph at the Miami Open in March.
Puig hit 37 winners—17 more than Wozniacki—and converted five of 16 break points scoring her fifth straight win.
The sporadic second seed committed 32 unforced errors as her forehand and second serve betrayed her at times.
A slumping Wozniacki, who fell to 3-6 in her last nine matches, sometimes decelerated her forehand swing and struggled on second serve at critical stages.
A resurgent Puig has won 14 of her last 17 matches—including qualifying—rolling into quarterfinal clash with red-hot Chinese wild card Qiang Wang who has won 11 of her last 12 matches.
Wang, who won her second title of the season in Guangzhou last weekend, backed up her second-round victory over Tokyo champion Karolina Pliskova with a 7-5, 6-2 sweep of Daria Gavrilova.
US Open doubles champion Ashleigh Barty applied her all-court skills surprising Wimbledon champion Angelique Kerber 7-5, 6-1 to roar into the quarterfinals for the second straight year.
The 2017 Wuhan finalist came out firing to snatch a 3-0 lead.
Three-time Grand Slam champion Kerber battled back to 5-all.
Sliding her slice backhand to forcer Kerber to hit up on the ball, Barty burst through eight of the final nine games booking her quarterfinal spot.
During the last six months, Puig has risen 31 spots in the rankings to No. 51.
The Olympic gold medal champion has scored three of her six career Top 10 wins this season though she struggled at the start today.
Wozniacki jumped out to a 3-0 lead and had a point for 4-0, but could not convert. Puig answered with a four-game run, eventually earning her first set point at 6-5, but she missed a a forehand as Wozniacki break back to force the tie break.
When Wozniacki dragged a backhand wide, Puig gained three more set points at 6-3 in the breaker. The Dane saved them all and saved a fifth set point to level at 8-8.
A stubborn Puig fought off three set points, exploiting the Dane's double fault to draw even at 10. Defending a Wozniacki drive, Puig stood her ground and fired back a forehand crosscourt for a sixth set point.
Following a forehand forward, Puig punished a backhand drive volley to finally seal a grueling opening set. Puig, who was 11 of 15 at the net in the set, hit 24 winners nearly tripling Wozniacki's nine winner output.
Fighting through a grueling 78-minute opener, Puig took treatment for an apparent abdominal strain.
Trying to shake off that setback, Wozniacki broke for 2-1 then clocked a crosscourt forehand backing up the break in the fourth game.
Typically one of the best movers in the sport, Wozniacki was a bit flat-footed at times and Puig exploited her opponent's sloppy footwork hammering crosscourt drives.
Taking the ball on the rise, Puig pounded shots into the corners reeling off three consecutive games for a 4-3 lead. A lethargic Wozniacki slapped a smash into net to face match point in the 10th game.
Hitting more aggressively, Wozniacki rapped her fifth forehand winner to deny match point then saved a second match point with an inside-out backhand off the baseline.
Struggling to point positive points together, the Dane netted her 31st unforced error to face a third match point.
An over-anxious Puig sprayed a wild backhand return off a second serve.
The former world No. 1 saved three match points in all holding for 5-all.
Two games later, Wozniacki denied three more match points, tomahawking a forehand to draw even at deuce.
A floated backhand gave Puig a seventh match point. This time she plastered an inside-out forehand winner to close her sixth career Top 10 win in two hours, 24 minutes.