One unforeseen advantage to Caroline Wozniacki’s injuries and slow year is she’s fresh going into this US Open.
And now after an easy day against Romanian Monica Niculescu, 6-3 6-1, the Great Dane is in the round of 16 and raring to go.
“I’m definitely more fresh than the other players probably at this point,” she said. “I think definitely going into Asia, usually that’s when you mentally start falling apart. I think I will definitely be more fresh than everyone else. That’s why I have chosen to play a lot of tournaments at the end of the year.
“It’s just like I’m feeling good. I just want to take advantage of that and kind of just play, have fun with it, and enjoy the rest of the year. No matter what happens, at this point I’m just going to take it as momentum going into next year.”
But she still has another week here and it looks like it may be a long one for her. Wozniacki had it relatively easy for the first week of what she called her own “back garden.” It’s good that she got back to speed on the hard court season after skipping the clay courts and returned not 100 percent for grass, surfaces that she is hadn’t had the same success.
But here, the part time New Yorker feels right at home.
“Having to skip the whole clay season and still not feeling 100% going into grass, I mean, I think — I have to start somewhere, and I started on the grass thinking, I’m going to get some matches here and that’s going to get me really into the hard court season and I will be 100% ready for that,” she said. “So I went into the grass season just trying to get momentum going. Then hurting myself in Washington wasn’t really part of the plan. Then I only play New Haven basically as the US Open Series.”
And now she’s on the Round of 16 in a tournament she adopted as her hometown contest. She will play the winner of the Madison Keys vs. Japan’s Naomi Osaka.
It doesn’t matter who wins, because the Great Dane will be ready.
“Both are big hitters and big servers. Both have big forehands. It’s actually very similar game styles,” she said. “I’ll need to retrieve well and keep good depth on my shots and serve well. Yeah, I just need to fight for every point.”
She will be ready.
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