On a warm and humid night in New Haven, four-time champion Caroline Wozniacki defeated wild carded American Alison Riske 6-0, 6-2 in 58 minutes at the 2015 Connecticut Open.
Vintage Wozniacki in the Opening Set
Caroline Wozniacki has had a brutal summer on the American hard courts as she injured her calf before the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford a month ago and she was on a four-match losing streak coming into this match. The former world number one showed no sign of that injury or those woes early on as she meant business early in the match.
Dictating with her backhand, the Dane was striking the ball very nicely and her forehand, which has been weaker wing in recent years, was working just as well as her backhand. Only letting Riske win two points in five games, Wozniacki quickly went up a 5-0 lead on her American opponent. On top of her great ground strokes from the ground, the Danish number one was running every ball down, refusing to give Riske any free points. Riske tried to change some of her tactics by giving Wozniacki less angles to work with towards the end of the first set but it was a case of two little, too late for the wildcard as the four-time champion of this event won the opening set, 6-0.
Riske Wins a Couple of Games but Unable to Stop Wozniacki's Great Play and Momentum
To begin the second set, Wozniacki held to 15 as she was looking to continue where she left off in the last set. Fortunately for Riske, she was able to restore some American pride as she finally got a game on the board, after saving a break point to level the second set at one-game-all. In the next game, Riske was able to push Wozniacki to deuce thanks to some more controlled but aggressive play but in the end, the Dane was a little tactically smarter with her serve and ground strokes to go up a 2-1 lead in the second set.
In the next game, Wozniacki was like a brick wall that you could hit at as many times as you wanted to but she would return everything you hit with interest. In the end, the former champion of the Connecticut Open was too consistent for her American counterpart, breaking at love to open up a 3-1 lead. The frustrating thing for Alison Riske was she was able to apply lots of pressure on Wozniacki by moving her from side-to-side but she was just unable to deliver the final blow often enough to string together a series of points. However, there was very little that Riske could do as Wozniacki was playing some of her best tennis of the season. The Dane was firing on all cylinders as she held to 15, to open up a sizeable 4-1 lead.
At the change of ends, Alison called for her new coach, recently retired WTA doubles player Chanelle Scheepers to give her some advice. Scheepers told her to be more aggressive and to not be scared to miss since she had nothing to lose. The American did just that as she held serve for only the second time in this match, much to the delight of the pro-American crowd. Could this be a turning point in this match?
Using her coach's advice, Riske was trying to gain the upper hand in as many rallies as possible but she started to over press and against a great defender like Wozniacki, that's what will happen nine times out of ten in a match. Take nothing away from Wozniacki though as she played another superb game with great, clean ball striking to open up a 5-2 lead. The Dane was now only one game away from snapping her four match losing streak. In the next game, the former world number one found herself only one point away from the win and she didn't even need to hit a ball to win the match! Riske double faulted for the fourth time in the match on match point and Wozniacki had completed a comprehensive and clinical 6-0, 6-2 win to advance to the second round of the 2015 Connecticut Open. She will face Roberta Vinci last on Stadium Court on Wednesday afternoon.