Tuesday, September 29, 2009 10:44 PM
Wozniak breaks through against near-namesake
Tom Tebutt
It certainly was not the way she wanted to do it, but the Canadian is finally on the board in the Wozniak-Wozniacki rivalry.
At the $2-million (U.S.) Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo on Tuesday, Aleksandra Wozniak, of Blainville, Que., scored a 5-0, retired, victory in the second round when her near-namesake from Denmark, Caroline Wozniacki, had to stop because of a viral infection.
Both of Polish ancestry, Wozniak and Wozniacki had previously met four times as professionals, with the Dane winning all four.
The first two, at Wimbledon in 2008 and in Ponte Vedra, Florida, in April, Wozniacki scored one-sided 6-1, 6-1 and 6-1, 6-2 wins. But the last two – in Eastbourne on grass in June and in Cincinnati on hard courts in August – were much more competitive, Wozniacki prevailing 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 and 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
With her victory Tuesday, Wozniak increases her record official prize money for a Canadian woman in a single year to $387,932.
Friends away from the court, Wozniak and Wozniacki are frequently mistaken for each other, getting calls to the wrong room if they are in the same hotel and sometimes receiving mail intended for the other person.
“It’s getting messy,” Wozniak joked during the French Open this year. “Now when we book practice courts, sometimes they put us with the wrong person.”
It is somewhat ironic that the two have played each other four times in 2009. Wozniacki has only played one other player – Virginie Razzano of France – that often, while Wozniak has not played anyone, besides Wozniacki, more than twice.
With her runner-up finish to Kim Clijsters at the recent U.S. Open, Wozniacki, 19, has seen her ranking hit a career-high No. 5.
Wozniak, 22, reached a career-best No. 21 in June. With her two wins in Tokyo this week, she will move her current No. 35 up closer to No. 30.
For a spot in the quarter-finals, Wozniak will face No. 49-ranked Magdalena Rybarikova, 21, on Wednesday. They have split two previous meetings, with Wozniak posting a 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-5 victory over the tall, wiry Slovak in their most recent match, in January in Auckland, New Zealand.
It has already been a memorable tournament for Wozniak. On Monday, she defeated home favourite Kimiko Date Krumm 5-7, 7-6 (2), 6-4 on her opponent’s 39th birthday. That was the day after Date Krumm became the second oldest player to win a tour event in the open era when he triumphed at the Korea Open in Seoul.
