World number six Caroline Wozniacki was handily defeated in the final of the Rogers Cup on Sunday by world number five Elina Svitolina. The finals run was still the best of the Dane’s career in Toronto, having lost her opening match in every previous visit. Despite the defeat in this year’s final, Wozniacki was staying upbeat, preferring to focus on the positives from what was overall a great week.
Tough finals loss
After the 6-4, 6-0 beatdown, Wozniacki’s analysis of the match was simple, saying, “it was a tough day. She played well. She mixed up the pace and made it uncomfortable for me out there.”
Wozniacki blew through her draw, scoring several wins over some powerful players, most notably world number one Karoline Pliskova. However, in the final, she found herself up against a grinder in the form of Svitolina. The Dane, who feeds on her opponent’s power, admitted that “today probably I could have used some more pace [from my opponent]. But she played really smart today and, yeah, used my pace to her advantage.”
Facing an opponent who wasn’t going to go big and finish points, Wozniacki, who had an uncharacteristically high number of unforced errors, explained that “I had to go for it a bit more. It was longer rallies, so normally you have the opportunity to have more unforced errors. And it is what it is.”
Finding positives
In the end, though, Wozniacki was generally happy with her performance in Toronto, a city where she has historically struggled. For her, just making the final was a pretty big accomplishment, something that was not lost on the former world number one who said, “I had to go for it a bit more. It was longer rallies, so normally you have the opportunity to have more unforced errors. And it is what it is.”
Wozniacki will now head to Cincinnati, where she is once again the sixth seed.