Thursday, November 1, 2012

Wozniacki goes 3-0 in Sofia round-robin play

Top seed Caroline Wozniacki handily placed herself into the Tournament of Champions semifinals today by completing round-robin play with a 3-0 record. The Danish star defeated Daniela Hantuchova 3-6, 7-6, 6-4. The match lasted two hours and 45 minutes (what do they think this is, Istanbul?!). Hantuchova won 109 points, Wozniacki won 107.

Joining Wozniacki in the semifinals from Group Serdika is Roberta Vinci, who defeated Hsieh Su-Wei 6-1, 6-2 today.

Advancing to the semifinals from Group Sredets are Nadia Petrova and Tsvetana Pironkova. The apple cart was somewhat overturned when Maria Kirilenko withdrew from the tournament with an upper respiratory infection; Kirilenko was considered likely to advance to the semifinals. Petrova beat Kirilenko in three sets today, with Kirilenko winning one more point (101 to 100) than her opponent. Also of interest: Petrova hit seven aces; Kirilenko hit nine.

Here are the round-robin standings:

GROUP SERDIKA
Caroline Wozniacki, 3-0
Roberta Vinci, 2-1
Hsieh Su-Wei, 0-2
Daniela Hantuchova, 0-2

GROUP SREDETS
Nadia Petrova, 2-0
Zheng Jie, 0-2
Maria Kirilenko, 1-1 (withdrew)
Tsvetana Pironkova, 1-1

The order of the semifinals is yet to be determined. Here is tomorrow's line-up:

Sofia Arvidsson (alternate replacing Kirilenko) vs. Zheng Jie
Nadia Petrova vs. Tsvetana Pironkova
Hsieh Su-Wei vs. Daniela Hantuchova

The winner of the Petrova vs. Pironkova match will determine who plays whom in the semifinals.

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