FLUSHING MEADOWS, NY – In the pale moonlight over Louis Armstrong Stadium, the sunset for Sunshine at the US Open.
Caroline Wozniacki was sent home after a first round defeat to Irina –Cameila Begu 2-6 2-6. In a stunning loss where the former US Open runner-up was favoring her right knee.
“You know, you always want to go in and do your best no matter what’s happening out there,” she said. “I tried. I didn’t succeed to play well. I didn’t play particularly well, made too many errors.
“You know, it’s unfortunate because it’s a huge tournament, a tournament you want to play well in.”
With her right knee tightly wrapped, Wozniacki couldn’t muster her usual baseline speed that makes her so dangerous. She was at the Romanian’s mercy as she couldn’t catch-up to the baseline shots.
“I haven’t really had a machine out there measuring,” Wozniacki said. “I definitely felt like I couldn’t hit through her today and I couldn’t hit past her like I wanted to. When she had the opportunity, she went in and finished off the point.”
During the second set and down a break, Wozniacki brought out the medical trainer to check and re-wrap her knee. It really didn’t help as Begu was able to break her later in the set and Wozniacki couldn’t do anything on the return service.
And that makes for the first major upset of the Open. A mainstay in the second week, Wozniacki will be missed. Even though she was seeded eighth this year, her lowest since 2009, she did have the star power to make it through the first week.
Now she goes home early wondering what’s next.
“You know, the year’s not done yet,” Wozniacki said. “Obviously definitely the Grand Slams this year hasn’t been great. You know, after the year is finished you can evaluate you can see what was good and wasn’t so good, yeah, work from there.”
“I still have plenty of years in me. Hopefully I can just turn it around and play even better.”
If her knee heals, she probably can.
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