Wonderful Wozniacki Into US Open QF

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

NEW YORK, NY, USA – Two-time US Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki has tapped into some New York magic once more, taking out No.8 seed Madison Keys, 6-3, 6-4, to reach her first Grand Slam quarterfinal in exactly two years.

“It’s been a good week,” Wozniacki said after the match. “I’m really happy about the way I played. Obviously Madison is a strong player. She hits the ball really hard.

“But I managed to really play well, get a lot of returns in. I served well, which I was pleased with.”

Dealing with injuries throughout the 2016 season, the former No.1 had tumbled all the way down to No.74 in the rankings, but is set to begin her climb back in earnest thanks another big win in Flushing. Playing Keys for the first time, the Dane relied on her signature consistency to frustrate the young American, winning 80% of her first serve points and hitting just three unforced errors in the one hour and 18 minute match.

“Everybody wants to beat you. No matter what my ranking is at this current moment , I always feel like I’m a target. I have to keep improving to beat everybody. I feel like I have been serving well this week, especially today, and returning well and really having good court coverage.”

Keys had come off a hard-fought third round win against fellow young gun Naomi Osaka, and despite hitting 30 winners against Wozniacki, 33 unforced errors proved critical on Sunday, engineering just one break point all day.

“I definitely felt like I got off to a bad start, and then I felt like I was trying to catch up from there,” Keys said in her post-match press conference.

“I definitely don’t think I was playing my best. I mean, I think she played really, really well today. I think it was just a combination of me not playing my best and not playing super smart and her playing really well.

“I feel like the match just got away from me.”

Up next for Wozniacki is comeback kid Anastasija Sevastova, who continued her own Cinderella run into the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 7-5 win over No.13 seed, Johanna Konta.

“I had some tough matches against her in the past,” Wozniacki said. “I think we played Fed Cup a couple of times, but also we played the Australian Open.

“She’s a tough player. She’s a tough opponent. She has a lot of grit and good hands. It’s not going to be an easy one, but I’m excited just to have another shot.”

Calm and relaxed throughout the fortnight, Wozniacki even took in some of Saturday night’s match between Stan Wawrinka and Dan Evans, trying her hand at providing match analysis on Twitter:

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