Four-time New Haven champion Caroline Wozniacki showed her winning ways tonight when she defeated Sloane Stephens 7-6. 6-2 in the quarterfinals. Wozniacki played aggressively against Stephens, and the first set was close and quite entertaining. Then the Dane pulled away and dominated her opponent with first-rate serving. Stephens has a tendency to fade in and out quickly, and doing so cost her against the 4th seed.
Wozniacki's opponent in the semifinals will be Simona Halep, who just keeps popping up everywhere at the business end of draws. Halep defeated Ekaterina Makarova 6-1, 7-6. The other semifinal will be an all-Czech affair--Petra Kvitova vs. Klara Zakapalova. Kvitova, the defending champion, needed--all together now!--three sets to defeat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Zakapalova lost her first set to Elena Vesnina, who then proceeded to win no games at all in the second set and to go down 2-5 in the third. The Russian broke, and was just shy of taking the set to 5-all, but Zakapalova walked away with a 4-6, 6-0, 6-4 victory.
My favorite commentator remark about the match: "Piotr Wozniacki--always composed."
While the quarterfinalists were fighting it out in New Haven, a trio composed of Stacey Allaster, Billie Jean King and Victoria Azarenka went to the top of the Empire State Building to throw the switch on a pink and purpose light that shines over New York City and commemorates the 40th anniversary of the founding of the WTA.
Earlier today, Allaster accompanied Bethanie Mattek-Sands to the New York Stock Exchange, where Mattek-Sands rang the opening bell.
The real Petra showed up today. 6-0,6-1. The tv folks were raving about her absolutely flawless destruction of her opponent. I only saw the last game. My comment: Kotyza was not with her in Dubai. Kotyza was not there today.
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