MASON, Ohio: Fifth-seeded Amelie Mauresmo and sixth-seeded Aleksandra Wozniak easily advance to the quarterfinals of the Cincinnati Women’s Open with straight-set wins on Thursday.
Wozniak beat Julia Vakulenko of Ukraine 6-2, 6-3, before Mauresmo became the last quarterfinalist with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium.
“As I told you after my first match, I’m just looking to find my rhythm, which I found tonight,” said Mauresmo, who was ranked No. 1 in 2004 and 2006 and is playing her first tournament since Wimbledon while coming back from a thigh injury. “I was happy to not spend too much time on the court.” Wozniak broke Vakulenko’s serve to clinch the first set and start a string of consecutive service breaks that reached five before the Canadian held to take a 3-2 lead in the second set. She added another break to take control before closing out the match when the Ukrainian returned a serve long.
Vakulenko, who committed 14 unforced errors in the first set and 27 in the match to Wozniak’s 14, traced her problems in part to the fractured right wrist she suffered in January.
“My arm gets really tired, and I can’t practice as much,” she said.
Wozniak, who split her first two career matches with Vakulenko, believed her aggressiveness was the difference.
“I played some balls deep into the corners and down the middle, and she didn’t have a chance to step up and play her game,” Wozniak said. Wozniak, who won her first career title at Stanford last month as a qualifier, will meet Nathalie Dechy of France in one of quarterfinals of the Western and Southern Financial Group Women’s Open.
Mauresmo’s quarterfinals opponent will be Vania King, who earned her first quarterfinals of the year with a 6-1, 6-4 win over fellow American Jamea Jackson.
Jackson led 4-1 in the second set before King regrouped to win the last five games, capping her surge with an ace on match point.
“In the first set, she made a lot of unforced errors,” King said. “I think we both were a little nervous. I don’t think we both played our best. In the second set, she was more aggressive and played a lot of long points. When I was down 3-0 and 4-1, it was only one break, so I didn’t panic, because I knew (with) one break, I’m back in it.”
