World number two Caroline Wozniacki secured a spot in the season-ending WTA championships when she reached the quarter-finals at the Pan Pacific Open women’s tournament yesterday.
Wozniacki, who was runner-up in last year’s US Open, needed only 70 minutes to beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 6-2 to book a place in the WTA championships in Doha from October 26.
“I’m really happy to be playing in Doha. It was a goal for me going into the year to be in the top eight. I’m really happy that I’m the first one to qualify,” said the 20-year-old Dane.
Wozniacki fired an ace to save a break point in the third game, and then took five straight games as Pavlyuchenkova struggled with her serve, hitting a total of seven double faults.
The Russian, trailing 1-4 in the second set, finally broke Wozniacki in the sixth game but the deficit was too big for Pavlyuchenkova to come back.
“I feel I’m playing some good tennis. Today it was a tough match, even though the score was 6-1, 6-2. Anastasia is a good player, so I knew I had to be focused all the way through and I’m happy about the result,” Wozniacki said.
The quarter-final will see the Dane take on her friend Agnieszka Radwanska, who eliminated Andrea Petkovic 6-3, 6-3.
Vera Zvonareva, Francesca Schiavone, former champion Elena Dementieva as well as Victoria Azarenka also went through.
Zvonareva, who reached her career highest at fourth in the world after finishing runner-up at the US Open, took the last seven games in a row to score a 6-4, 6-0 victory over Roberta Vinci.
She set up a quarter-final meeting with Beijing Olympic gold medallist Dementieva, the seeded seventh, who had to come back from an early service break down to beat Flavia Pennetta 6-4, 6-2.
Schiavone, ranked eighth in the world, put an end to Kimiko Date Krumm’s giant-killing run with a 6-3, 6-3 victory.