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Casey makes short work of Wozniak in Round One

By Staff

Kolkata, Sep 17 (UNI) Casey Dellacqua of Australia made quick work of Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak to move to the second round of the Sunfeast Open here today.

Repeating her last year's feat when she came into the tournament as the last accepted player and pulled off a massive upset by showing second seed Karolina Sprem the door in a three-setter, disposed off 104th-ranked Wozniak 6-2, 6-3 in just over an hour.

The 85th ranked Aussie who has been in reasonable form this year with a 49-19 win-loss record in singles, turned on the heat from the start and bagged four games in a row, which eventually saw her pocketing the first set 6-2.

Inspite of her impact-less performance in Grand Slams, the Aussie has bagged four ITF titles this year. However, she made first round exits at the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and second round finish at the year's last major -- the US Open, where she lost to Russian beauty Maria Sharapova.

Casey who broke into the top 100 of WTA rankings this year, achieved breaks in the second, fourth and ninth game of second set to seal the issue in her favour.

Meanwhile, the day's opening match saw a baseline slugfest between British qualifier Naomi Cavaday and Ekaterina Ivanova of Russia. Eventually, the Russian girl outpaced the 193rd-ranked Briton 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 in one hour and 38 minutes to book a second round berth.

Cavaday, who stretched former Swiss World number one Martina Hingis to three sets in Wimbledon this year, has a massive forehand and an equally impressive backhand.

However, the British qualifier, who is under the tutelage of David Felgate, Tim Henman's former coach, still needs to find a way to keep her forehands on target as all Ivanova, who's yet to win a title on the tour, did, was to keep the ball in play.

Cavaday did the rest by committing a huge number of unforced errors and found herself a set down within the first 35 minutes of the match. She also failed to capitalise on as many as six break points.

However, the second set saw Cavaday keep her first serves on target and converted two of her five break points to clinch the set 6-2. The game evolved solely around the British qualifier as she created more chances than her opponent.

In the third set, Ivanova, who lost her cool a couple of times in arguing with the chair umpire, started keeping more balls inside the court. She also tried to vary the angles and slow the pace of the game.

Her strategy paid dividends as Cavaday once again lapsed into committing errors. From 0-2 down in the final set, Ivanova romped home 6-2, winning the last five games in row.

Meanwhile, in a first round doubles encounter, the Turkish-Russian pair of Ipek Senoglu and Yaroslava Shvedova defeated American combo of Courtney Naglie and Robin Stephenson 7-6, 6-1.

UNI

Story first published: Thursday, August 24, 2017, 16:00 [IST]
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