Wozniacki, Top 10 All Struggle on Wednesday at Australian Open Where Temps Soar
All three Top 10 seeds in action struggled into the third round in three sets on Wednesday at the Australian Open where the temperatures started to rise in Melbourne, previewing a Thursday and Friday when the temps will be hovering around 100 degrees.
ADHEREL
Through to the third round were No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki defeating unheralded Croat Jana Fett 3-6, 6-2, 7-5, No. 4 Elina Svitolina edging Czech Katerina Siniakova 4-6, 6-2, 6-1, and No. 7 Jelena Ostapenko working past No. 70-ranked Ying-Ying Duan of China 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.
Fett served for the match at 5-1 in the third against Wozniacki.
“I felt like I was one foot out of the tournament,” Wozniacki said. “I’m very proud of the way I came back.”
Svitolina appeared to struggle on court in the heat and alluded to dealing with some illness.
“I had some issues before the start of the — it was like big question if I’m going to step on the court for my first round,” said the betting favorite to win the event. “I will try and recover and be ready [for the next round].”
There were three lower-seeded upsets as Alize Cornet ended the 15-match winning streak of No. 12 Julia Goerges 6-4, 6-3, the Ukraine’s Kateryna Bondarenko ousted No. 15 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-3, and Poland’s Magda Linette dumped No. 23 Daria Kasatkina 7-6(4), 6-2.
Cornet was 0-5 career against Goerges entering the match.
Other seeded winners Wednesday were No. 19 Magdalena Rybarikova who needed three sets to get past Belgian Kirsten Flipkens, No. 30 Kiki Bertens, and No. 32 Anett Kontaveit who edged Mona Barthel in three.
In noted all-unseeded match-ups, 15-year-old No. 522-ranked Marta Kostyuk, a qualifier and last year’s girls’ champion, defeated Aussie Olivia Rogowska 6-3, 7-5 to move into the third round, and Thailand’s Luksika Kumkhum unceremoniously put Belinda Bencic out of the tournament 6-1, 6-3.
Matches to look for on Thursday in Melbourne include (1) Simona Halep vs. Genie Bouchard, (18) Ashleigh Barty vs. Camila Giorgi, (21) Angie Kerber vs. Donna Vekic, Maria Sharapova vs. Anastasija Sevastova, and (16) Elena Vesnina vs. Naomi Osaka. Also in action are No. 3 Garbine Muguruza, No. 4 Lucie Safarova, No. 9 Johanna Konta, and No. 17 Madison Keys.
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