By Adam Addicott & Giovanni Vianello
Caroline Wozniacki will be hoping that it is sixth time lucky at the Rogers Cup when she takes on Elina Svitolina in Sunday’s final.
The Dane is relishing her time in Toronto this year. Earlier in the week she defeated world No.1 Karolina Pliskova, claiming her first ever win over a top ranked player at the age of 27. Overall, she has only dropped one set in four matches played so far in the tournament. The run breaks Wozniacki’s curse in Toronto. Prior to 2017, she had never progressed beyond the second round when the Rogers Cup was held in the city.
“I know I’ve been playing really well this year and, beaten a lot of top players. But at the same time with a record like I had here in the past, I wasn’t really expecting too much of myself.” She admitted during her press conference.
“But, maybe that’s also the key why it’s been going so well, because I just walked in and I was more relaxed about the whole thing.”
Wozniacki booked her place in the final with a 6-2, 6-3, win over Sloane Stephens. Heading into the match, the head-to-head between the two was 5-1 in Wozniacki’s favour. She had triumphed four times on a hard-court and once on grass, but Stephens had won the last encounter between the two. Stephens, who recently returned from a lengthy injury absence, is ranked 934th, but after this week’s performance is sure to rise significantly in the rankings.
The Dane dominated the first set to win it 6-2. Wozniacki was almost perfect from the baseline and, with her good athletic shape, was able to set up a solid defence against Stephens’ powerful groundstroke. On the other hand, Stephens made some avoidable unforced errors. The sole regret Wozniacki may have was the wasted set-point in the seventh game, in which she had gained a 40-30 lead (she was serving with the score of 5-1), but Stephens played well on the set-point and in the following two points recovered one of the breaks. Nevertheless, Wozniacki won the following game, by breaking Stephens again, to clinch the 6-2 lead.
The second set is more of a fight. At the beginning there was an exchanged of breaks. Another break of Stephens’ serve followed, allowing Wozniacki to gain a 3-1 lead, before being pegged back at 3-3. Those last two games were the last won by the American in the match, who got broken for the third time in the set to give Wozniacki a 5-3 advantage. Serving for a place in the final, Wozniacki triumphed on her second match point.
“I think I was moving very well and retrieving and just trying to stay aggressive when I could.” Said Wozniacki.
“But it was a difficult match. And I think it was closer than what the score line showed.”
Sixth time’s a charm?
Wozniacki will now contest in her sixth WTA Final of the year. She has already had to settle for second best on five occasions in Doha, Dubai, Miami, Eastbourne and Bastad. Although, she refuses to be deterred by it.
“I put myself in great positions and, you know, I’m going to try and make the most of it tomorrow.” She explained.
Against Svitolina, she leads their head-to-head 2-0. On the other hand, the Ukrainian has already won four titles this season and defeated 2016 champion Simona Halep 6-1, 6-1, in her semifinal match.
“She’s having a good year as well. She’s injury-free and playing really good. So it’s going to be a good match. I know this.” Svitolina said about Wozniacki.
The women’s final will take place at 13:30 local time (GMT -5).
Caroline Wozniacki d. Sloane Stephens 6-2, 6-3 to reach in Toronto her 6th final of the year.
Caro is 6-0 in SFs, 0-5 in finals this year pic.twitter.com/x9K8WJLvel
— José Morgado (@josemorgado) 12 August 2017
