2nd seed Caroline Wozniacki avoided the seeds bug at the Australian Open as she eased past world number 57 Mihaela Buzarnescu, 6-2, 6-3 in one hour and 11 minutes booking her place in the second round in Melbourne. The Dane’s draw is relatively smooth and she has a good chance of going deep into the tournament.
Six seeds in the bottom section of the women’s draw which included the likes of last year’s runner-up Venus Williams, 10th seed Coco Vandeweghe, reigning US Open champion Sloane Stephens and 2014 runner-up Dominika Cibulkova all fell by the wayside and Wozniacki ensured her name was not added to the list.
The former world number one kicked off the evening session on the Margaret Court Arena, and she held onto her serve, and immediately broke the Romanian to lead 2-0. However, she was unable to consolidate the break as Buzarnescu broke Wozniacki’s serve to love, and restored parity in the early proceedings.
Wozniacki, a semifinalist in Melbourne back in 2011 was excelling in the long grueling baseline rallies, and she quickly found herself a break up again, and raced out to a healthy 5-2 lead.
Buzarnescu, was in good form herself as she reached her first career final in Hobart losing to defending champion Elise Mertens, but she was overwhelmed in the first set by Wozniacki, who claimed it in just 29 minutes, 6-2 as she netted her backhand.
Wozniacki overcomes a slight wobble to avoid the upset
It was all one-way traffic as the former world number one raced out to a 2-0 lead, breaking the 29-year-old’s serve to love but once again, it was a surprising sluggish game from the Dane as Buzarnescu broke Wozniacki’s serve to love.
Buzarnescu was spirited as she broke the second seed’s serve again to lead 3-2. Nevertheless, the reigning WTA Finals champion pressed the reset button as she continued to grind out lengthy points, and she broke the world number 57’s with two delightful back-to-back volleys.
The Dane was in the zone as she held onto her serve, and in a blink of an eye, Wozniacki was firmly in control of this first round encounter as she broke the Romanian’s serve by producing a smash volley at the net, leading 5-3.
One of the firm favourites for the title had no problems closing out the match as her big serve out wide, followed by a forehand forcing an error from Buzarnescu, saw Wozniacki safely through into the second round of the Australian Open.
Wozniacki was congratulated on her victory over the top 60 player in her on-court interview, and was asked on how tough it was on playing someone, you are not familiar with.
“Thank you, she’s a very good player, I knew it was going to be tough, she had a great year, last year, making her way to the top 50 and obviously last year, making her way to the top 50, last week she made her first WTA finals, I knew it was going to be tough, kept my head down and trying to fight from every point.
Wozniacki continued, “Actually we know each other very well, we played each other a million times in the junior event and played doubles together, we know each other very well, she’s been through a lot of injuries, that’s why she’s making her way back up now.”
The former world number one was told that the draw had opened up but the Dane is taking at one step at a time.
“Honestly I don’t think too much about it, I’m just here to play every match, hopefully I can play every match well and hopefully that’s good enough.”
Wozniacki will face Croatia’s Jana Fett in the second round with a possible third round meeting with 30th seed Kiki Bertens on the cards.
