Caroline Wozniacki has always had the smile to charm disbelievers but it is her grit that is driving her through the draw in this Australian Open. In a splintered field, it might be decisive in getting her to the final weekend. On a sweltering day five, the Dane who loves boxing disarmed the 30th seed, Kiki Bertens, in two sets to reach the fourth round against Magdalena Rybarikova.
Wozniacki, seeded second, won 6-4, 6-3 but it was not as easy as the score suggests. “I’m just still happy to be alive in the tournament,” Wozniacki said. “It’s nice to be back in the fourth round.” Wozniacki also chipped on the heat issue that has gripped the tournament. “I think it can be dangerous,” she said. “I was in my air-conditioned room, watching [Gaël] Monfils against [Novak] Djokovic. I thought it was a shame that the roof wasn’t on because I think that could have been a really high-quality match.”
Rybarikova, the 19th seed, earlier beat Kateryna Bondarenko 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 in just over two hours.
Of the intermittent mistakes the French Open champion, Jelena Ostapenko, has made in her young career, 46 unforced errors against Anett Kontaveit probably cost her dearest.
Asked about the pivotal, error-strewn second set, when Ostapenko looked to be running away with the match, Kontaveit said later, “She was playing really aggressive. It was very difficult for me to hold serve. I was just trying to stay with her, keep my energy up, fight for every point.”
And then there was a 12-minute game in the third, when Kontaveit broke her temperamental opponent. “I was just taking it point by point,” she said. “That’s the only way you can look at it. She’s tough. She fights. I mean, she’s good.”
Now she faces Carla Suarez Navarro, who beat Kaia Kanepi 3-6, 6-1, 6-3. The last time they met, Kontaveit recalls, she was, “14 or 15”, playing Fed Cup. “I remember being really young. We played in Estonia. She beat me easy.“
Also through after a difficult day are fourth seed Elina Svitolina, who knocked out the 15-year-old Marta Kostyuk, the Czech qualfier Denisa Allertova, Elise Mertens and Petra Martic.
