First Simona Halep, then Garbine Muguruza – and now Caroline Wozniacki. In the women’s field, the next favourite left surprisingly early before the third round.
This US Open had already started with a big shock for the Wozniacki family. While daughter Caroline took her first round hurdle against the former New York winner Samantha Stosur (Australia) quite easily, mother Anna stood in the stands shortly before the heat stroke.
The former Polish national volleyball player had to be severely dehydrated at temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius and visibly disorientated. “She was on the verge of collapse,” said Father Piotr Wozniacki afterwards.
But maybe the location of match number two of the Australian Open winner was somehow a bad omen. Wozniackis match against the Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko was set in the newly opened and imposing Louis Armstrong Stadium. In the days before, the top seeded French Open winner Simona Halep (Romania) and the two-time Grand Slam winner Garbine Muguruza (Spain) had already suffered bitter first-round slips there.
Will the imposing stadium of all places become the cemetery of stars, as the legendary Court 2 in Wimbledon was repeatedly called? Possible, as Wozniacki, the 2009 and 2014 Flushing Meadows finalist, was also hit on Thursday evening local time.
“Lesia played exactly the way I had planned. She brought back many balls, played with angles – and when a short ball came, she was killed,” said the disappointed Wozniacki after her 4:6, 2:6 defeat in the night session – under sweaty conditions.
The Dane, who has suffered several injuries this season (knee, ankle), only won six times. Not unusual. However, the passionate grueling artist also made 33 unforced mistakes – and this is truly unusual.
She took a 3-1 lead over 36th in the world rankings, but lost eleven of the next 14 games because the Ukrainian number two was simply more aggressive and safer.
Wozniacki, most recently on the cover of Hamptons Magazine, then practiced self-criticism. The court had been slow by US open standards, and she “failed” to adjust to it, said the 28-year-old frank and freely.
Tsurenko (29), however, who had reached the round of 16 in New York in 2016, will now face the young Czech Katerina Siniakova in the third round on Saturday. The temperatures in the Big Apple should be more bearable than last Friday. “Heat fan” Tsurenko can live with that, too.
The fragile-looking right-handed woman from Kiev had hardly any problems with the high humidity. “I have had good experiences playing night matches in these conditions,” said Tsurenko with a view to her tournament victories in Acapulco/Mexico in 2017 and 2018.