Sunday, September 13, 2009

Wozniacki in U.S. Open final

Caroline Wozniacki, the 9th seed at the U.S. Open, will play Kim Clijsters tomorrow for the championship. Wozniacki defeated the unseeded Yanina Wickmayer 6-3, 6-3, in a match that was played in Louis Armstrong Stadium after a lengthy rain delay, while most eyes were on the Williams-Clijsters match in Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Wickmayer hit three times as many winners as Wozniacki, but she also made three times as many errors. Wozniacki's clever, careful and clean play has allowed her to finesse her way to the 2009 final in a tournament that has featured one surprise after another.

To get to the final, Wozniacki defeated Galina Voskoboeva, Petra Martic, Sorana Cirstea, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Melanie Oudin, and Wickmayer.

Wild card Clijsters carved her path to the final by defeating Victoriya Kutuzova, Marion Bartoli, Kirsten Flipkens, Venus Williams, Li Na, and Serena Williams.

Both players defeated close friends--Cirstea (also her doubles partner), in Wozniacki's case, and Flipkens, in the case of Clijsters. Wozniacki took out Oudin, who became an instant celebrity when she upset four Russian players in succession, and Clijsters now joins a small group of players who have defeated both Williams sisters at a major event; this was Clijsters' second time to do so.

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