Despite the extreme heat at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center today, Caroline Wozniacki made it look easy in her first round match, a 6-3 6-2 win over 2011 Open Champion Sam Stosur.
“She came out and served a bunch of aces to start off with, and I said, Okay, this is going to be a long day, a day where I really have to focus,” Wozniacki said. “I think what I was happiest with was just I held serve almost — I think I got broken once, but then I held serve the whole match. You know, just staying focused. It’s a match where you can’t just give up easy points, because with her serve, you know, it can be a long day.
“I was happy with just staying focused, trying to stay cool. Got a lot of returns back when I needed to.”
And now she needs to be a cool customer. With Simona Halep out, the No. 2 seeded Wozniacki may now be considered the favorite, even though there are some wild cards like Serena Williams at No. 16 overall.
That may put some more pressure on her as the tournament goes on, but right now, she is staying cool.
“I’m just thinking about myself,” she said. “I’m more focused on just trying to play well. And I never look at the draw. Obviously, I saw Simona lost yesterday. But, you know, Kanepi can play really well, as well. She was here in the quarterfinals here last year. Definitely wasn’t an easy draw.
“I’m definitely going to give it my all and my best. You know, just one match at a time.”
And that means playing Ukranian Lesia Tsurenko in the next round, who beat Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck today in straight sets, 6-3 6-2.
“She’s a tricky opponent,” she said. “She’s beaten some good players. She moves around well, better backhand, tries to stay aggressive with that.
“Honestly, I haven’t thought too much about the match yet. I’m just excited to have won today. I’m going to use the rest of the day to just fuel up and stay cool.”
And staying cool is the theme of the day.
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