Doha: Wozniacki Secured Year-End No.1, Dementieva Upset Stosur
Wozniacki finishes the year as No 1 WTA
No matter how she will be performing from now on, she will remain top of the WTA rankings. Having beaten Francesca Schiavone, the 20-year-old Dane will end for the first time the year as leader. Caroline Wozniacki ended her third match at the WTA Championships which take place in Doha these days, defeating the Italian 3-6, 6-1, 6-1. Furthermore, the Danish teenager keeps her chances for the semi finals, so for her first major trophy. Wozniacki remains No 1 although she didn’t win yet any Grand Slam tournament. Back to the game, she conceded the first set after Schiavone would break one serve in the fourth game and hoped to win the match, as well.
Finally, things would turn out the Italian did lose the match, being smashed by Wozniacki, who didn’t let the Italian win but two games in each of the last two sets. The Dane finished the game hitting 17 winners which were outweighted though by 18 errors, while Schiavone ended committing 34 errors on 30 winners. “Francesca was playing really, really well in the first set. I didn’t have too many chances to break her. I knew I had to stay focused and from there I didn’t allow her to dictate the points as much. I’m really happy to win,” said Wozniacki, who is now the youngest world number one since 2000 when Swiss Martina Hingis used to finish top of the WTA. However, the Dane claimed her dream came true now. She is also the 20th player in tennis history to rise up there. But there were only ten players to end the year in the top. German Steffi Graf was the one to stay the longest in top. She finished first in four consecutive years between 1987 and 1990. It is also true that Wozniacki was propelled to the number one by Williams’s absence. The American missed a good part of this season, things which allowed, if not helped the Dane be the happiest girl in WTA.
Wozniacki won two matches of three in Doha. She first beat Elena Dementieva in the first day, before Stosur would upset her on Wednesday. However, it was the same Day 3 in Doha that found the Russian beating Samantha Stosur. Dementieva beat the Aussie in three sets as what Stosur could do is to win the first set and push the last one into the tiebreak. But the Russian, who couldn’t get rid of the loss in front of the Dane, proved too be too good in the second and third sets. Even if she had to struggle hard, she finally made it. Seven-seeded in Qatar, Dementieva beat Stosur 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(4). This was also the most competitive meeting this week in Doha. The Russian assured her second set-win by breaking early, while the last set saw the two winning on their one serve.
Dementieva acknowledged though she came pretty disturbed after she lost to Wozniacki. And this is not all. Stosur came to meet the Russian after a wonderful win to the world number one. Friday will bring another three matches at the $4.55 million Doha championship. Schiavone, who must win in order to remain on course for the semi finals, will play Elena Dementieva, the Russian trying to keep her confidence she gained winning to Stosur after the deception she had after being beaten by Wozniacki. Then, Kim Clijsters, who just had a tough game which she finally won in front of Azarenka in three sets 6-4, 5-7, 6-1, is expected to face Vera Zvonareva. Finally, Jelena Jankovic will meet Victoria Azarenka.
