Caroline Wozniacki spent less than an hour on the court during her dominating 6-1, 6-0, triumph over world No.69 Alexandra Dulgheru.
The third seed refused to let her Romanian opponent generate any sort of rhythm throughout the brief encounter. Wozniacki was in devastating form from the start of the match as she clinched eight consecutive points to ease to a 2-0 lead. Dulgheru did at times produced good tennis, but they were too inconsistent against the world No.17. Things got worse for the Romanian after she produced three consecutive double faults to hand Wozniacki her second break to lead the set 5-1. The Dane then raced to 40-0 in the following game to give herself three set points, taking the opening set on her third.
The impressive performance from Wozniacki continued in the second set as she broke Dulgheru three more times to help her seal the win after 52 minutes. The only minor blip that occurred for the Dane was at the very end when she faced a duo of break points after some successful free hitting from her rival. Despite going behind 15-40, the third seed battled back to take the second set 6-0.
Wozniacki’s serve was in top order during her straight sets victory. The former world No.1 won 83% of her first serves (20/24) and 69% of her second (9/13). She also produced 11 forehand and six backhand winners. Following the win, an delighted Wozniacki spoke about his win.
“I started off strongly and played aggressively… it was a good performance, I was really excited about it,” Wozniacki said.
“It gives me a lot of confidence, no matter how well I do in this tournament now.”
In the last four Wozniacki will play Sloane Stephens. The world No.30 experienced a tricky opening set before fighting her way part British qualifier Naomi Broady 7-6(6), 6-3. Despite the straight sets win, Stephens admitted in her press conference that Broady was a tough opponent for her.
“I was playing a tough opponent, she’s tricky to play obviously because she has a really big serve. So I was happy to get the win, but it was definitely a tricky match.” She said.
The semifinal match will be a tough encounter for Stephens, who currently has a 0-5 head-to-head against Wozniacki.
In the first match of the day, Austrian qualifier Tamira Peszek stunned world No.85 Kirsten Flipkens 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-3, to reach her first WTA semifinal since 2012. The 25-year-old lead the match 6-1, 4-1, before Flipkens staged a triumphant comeback in the second set. Despite her opponents resurgence, Paszek managed to close out the match after almost three hours.
“I’m delighted that I was strong enough mentally to focus and deal with the setbacks and actually close out the match.” The Austrian said.
Peszek is a former two-time Wimbledon quarter-finalist (2011 and 2012) but has recently been playing in lower level tournaments after falling down the rankings to 172 in the world. In the semifinals in Auckland she will play world No.50 Julia Goerges. The German booked her place in the last four after edging out Japan’s Nao Hibino 6-7(3), 6-2, 6-4.
