This is her fourth time reaching the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open.
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But despite the brilliant week, talk of the 26-year-old retiring has begun swirling.
“I came into this tournament ranked 74 in the world and probably people ruled me out, but it’s nice to prove people wrong once again”, said Wozniacki, who was sidelined almost three months with an ankle injury this year.
“I think when you’re a little kid and you don’t know what anything really means, everybody knows what it means to be the best in the world and everybody knows what it means to be No. 1”, said Wozniacki after her quarterfinal win over Anastasija Sevastova. They usually let me in and let me in and train for as long as I want.
Wozniacki’s four victories at the U.S. Open represent the first time she has won four in a row at a single event since early 2015.
It’s an intriguing semi-final clash between a former world number one who has never won a Grand Slam title and the current number two who claimed a first major at the Australian Open in January.
“It was tough, but what can I do?” It’s nice I can take the best of both worlds.
“I get another day”, Wozniacki said.
“I’ve beaten pretty much everyone in the draw before”.
After losing the first set of her opening night match Monday, Aug. 29 and being two points from being eliminated, she rebounded to beat Alison Riske 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2. The German leads their career head-t0-head 7-5.
The German second seed showed remarkable powers of resilience to retrieve three breaks of serve against Italian 33-year-old Vinci in the first set.
Madison Keys, of the United States, reacts after defeating Naomi Osaka, of Japan, during the third round of the U.S. Open tennis tournament, Friday, Sept. 2, 2016, in NY.
“It’s always tough to play Roberta, she always comes out to play great tennis”, said Kerber, who last made the semi-finals in NY in 2011.
Novak Djokovic, Caroline Wozniacki and Roberta Vinci will seek to return to the U.S. Open semifinals Tuesday, part of a lineup that also features two Frenchmen battling for a spot in the final four.
“I think it was a very fine line between being patient, consistent, and also trying to be aggressive and not step too far behind the baseline”, Wozniacki said.
“Now I’m a completely different player”.
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Meanwhile, Britain’s Johanna Konta looked back to full fitness as she swept past Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic 6-2 6-1 to reach the last 16. The Latvian rolled her ankle in the second game, and seemed anguished throughout the 65-minute ordeal. Not now, though. Kerber’s game has improved, sure, and so has her attitude. She never got sharp or refused to answer the same question over and over, but she had a lot more of Clijsters in her than Williams, now a close friend but one of the most rapacious winners on tour. Furthermore, a couple of her fourth-round losses in the past year have been to much lower-ranked players, namely Kiki Bertens at the French Open and Shuai Zhang at the Australian Open.
