World number one Caroline Wozniacki headlined the parade of seeded players to fall at the Toronto Cup with a shock loss on Wednesday while Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams moved into the last 16. Defending champ Wozniacki rarely looked comfortable on court and did not live up to her top seeding with seven double faults and a slew of errors during a 6-4 7-5 loss to Italy’s Roberta Vinci in windy conditions that played havoc with her game. A day after second seed Kim Clijsters dealt the tournament a blow by retiring from her opening match with a partial tear of a stomach muscle, it was Wozniacki’s turn for a premature exit.
“I didn’t get a chance to really get any rhythm, it was difficult first with the wind but also the way that she was playing,” Wozniacki, who became the seventh seeded player to exit the tournament in Toronto this week, told reporters. “Right now it’s pretty disappointing and you just try to get over this match and just try to analyse what happened and take the positives and negatives and try to improve.” After dropping the first set, Wozniacki raced into a 5-1 lead and seemed poised to force a third set but was unable to close it out as she served into the wind, which on several occasions interrupted her service tosses.
“I came against the wind for the next two games and it was pretty difficult on the other side and she served well and that pretty much just summed everything up,” said Wozniacki. “On one side the wind was blowing in the back and you had to watch out you didn’t play it long, and on the other side you really had to hit through the ball to make it even go.” Wozniacki headed a solid Toronto field that boasted the top 20 women players in the world, but Williams, unseeded after an 11-month layoff that ended in June, has grabbed the spotlight. After barely breaking sweat in a 46-minute opening match against Alona Bondarenko, Williams was forced to work a little harder to get by Germany’s Julia Goerges 6-1 7-6.
Wozniacki out, Sharapova, Serena in last 16
