Four-time reigning champ Caroline Wozniacki and second seed Petra Kvitova advanced to the quarter-finals of the WTA’s New Haven Open on Wednesday with straight-set victories. Kvitova, last year’s Wimbledon runner-up, easily defeated American Nicole Gibbs, 6-2, 6-4, to advance to Thursday’s quarters.
She will next face eighth-seeded Czech Lucie Safarova, who crushed China’s Zheng Jie, 6-4, 6-0. Former world number one Wozniacki, who is seeded third and seeking her fifth straight title at the event, improved to 19-0 lifetime in New Haven with a 7-6 (7/4), 6-2 victory over Sweden’s Sofia Arvidsson. The hardcourt tournament, at the Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale University, is serving as a tune-up event for next week’s US Open. Denmark’s Wozniacki defeated Czech Petra Cetkovska in last year’s New Haven final. Her quarter-final opponent on Thursday will be Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova.
Sixth-seeded Cibulkova won 6-4, 6-1 over German Andrea Petkovic, who has battled injuries for most of the year. This was Petkovic’s first tournament in nearly four months and only her fourth event of the season. She entered 2012 ranked 10th in the world. Petkovic says it is going to take some time to get her match conditioning back. “I’d play three or four good shots then miss horrible shots I’d never miss in a hundred years,” Petkovic said.
