Caroline Wozniacki is through to the semi-finals of the US Open following a comfortable 6-0 6-2 win over Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova yesterday.
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But Wozniacki was tight-lipped regarding her future as she looks ahead to a semi-final showdown with Australian Open champion and Olympic Games silver medallist Angelique Kerber in NY. With Wozniacki so clearly restored from her own ankle injury, it arranged a smashing semifinal matchup between the Dane Wozniacki, twice a finalist here (2009, 2014), and the German Angelique Kerber, twice a finalist this year (Australian Open, Wimbledon) and No. 2 in the world.
Sevastova rolled her right ankle and tripped to the court in the second game and seemed hobbled.
Williams needs to go further than Kerber in this event to maintain her spot, or to beat her in the final.
Wozniacki, the finalist in 2009 and 2014 and semi-finalist also in 2010 and 2011, sympathised with Sevastova after she spent nearly three months out of the sport with a right ankle injury earlier this year.
As she ended the upset-rich run of the Latvian ranked No. 48, Anastasija Sevastova, 6-0, 6-2, on Tuesday night, Wozniacki’s mastery proved so dominating that the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd chattered and murmured through the second set as if at baseball, upholding the rudest-Slam image here. “It would hurt more, I think”.
“She stood up and I knew if she can still walk and still put weight on it and stuff then she’s going to go obviously more for her shots and stuff like that”.
The semifinal match between Angelique Kerber and Caroline Wozniacki pits a would-be No. 1 against a former top-ranked WTA Tour player.
But from the end of 2010 through 2011 she was No. 1 for 67 straight weeks.
While Wozniacki has fallen out of the world’s top 50, she will be a unsafe foe for the confident Kerber, who was runner up at both Wimbledon (to Williams) and the Olympics (to Monica Puig).
Wozniacki broke after a lengthy opening game and then again in the third before Sevastova took a medical time-out for her injury. A merciless Djokovic then served out the set at love, firing a 118 miles per hour (189.9 km/h) ace – his first of the contest – on set point. I think I have no shame to say it.
In Monfils, 12-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic faces a player whose only prior semi-final run at a major came back in 2008 at the French Open.
But Kerber kept reining her in and with the seventh break in 12 games, the German took the opener after 54 minutes when Vinci was called for a foot fault.
The four players’ Polish bond is evident in holiday photos. She’s in good shape.
“I was playing better than her”, said the 33-year-old Vinci, who mentioned at her news conference that she will decide after the season whether to retire. Now, I go out there knowing how to win big matches. “Let’s see what I’m feeling and if I have a desire to continue. I have to follow the rules, right?” “He is better than me”.
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Her carefree hitting at the US Open has been interpreted as a sign that for someone with 23 career titles and $20 million in the bank, there are few challenges left – apart from that elusive first major.
