Serena out, Wozniacki advances at Wuhan Open
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E-mail Xinhua, September 23, 2014
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Top-ranked Serena Williams retired from her second-round match due to a viral illness at the Wuhan Open on Tuesday. |
World No. 1 Serena Williams succumbed to a viral illness at the end of the first set against 2014 nemesis Alize Cornet and retired at the Wuhan Open on Tuesday.
Williams had to withdraw from the tournament when she led 6-5 at the first set. Eigth seed Caroline Wozniacki narrowly edged past Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (4).
The Danish former world top player needed more than two hours to make it past Suarez Navarro, dropping the second set and facing a point for a 5-3 deficit in the third set but clawing back and eventually making it past the Spanish No.1 in a third set tie-break,
Suarez Navarro had almost three times as many winners as Wozniacki during the match, 46 to 16, but the usually-rock solid Spaniard also had more than twice as many unforced errors, 51 to 24.
Williams built an early 3-1 lead but watching on as Cornet just wouldn't let go, breaking back and neither player leading by more than a game again. But after a marathon 11th game, where Williams finally converted on her fourth break point to go up 6-5, the American had to retire from the match because of a viral illness.
Cornet, who beat Williams at Dubai and Wimbledon this year, is the first player to beat her three times in a season since Justine Henin in 2007.
Another top seeded player survived the second round was Angelique Kerber, the seventh seeded German defeated Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.
Two of the other seeds in action weren't so lucky either, both of them falling to WTA rising stars. Andrea Petkovic, the 16th seed, fell to Karolina Pliskova, 6-4, 6-4, and 10th seed Jelena Jankovic was forced to retire down 4-1 in the first set against CoCo Vandeweghe due to a back injury.
Pliskova, who's coming off the Hong Kong final and Seoul title, has won 11 of her last 12 matches.
"I've been winning a lot of close matches and long rallies the last few weeks, so I'm feeling good about my game and getting more confident," Pliskova said.
"It was the same today. I was winning a lot of long rallies, and she started making some more mistakes. I think that's why I won the match today."
Casey Dellacqua, Barbora Zahlavova Strycova and Belgian wildcard Kirsten Flipkens also won.
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