Venus Stifles Wozniacki to Reach Miami Quarterfinals

It was a different chapter, but the same old story in the Venus Williams-Caroline Wozniacki saga as the two met in the Miami Open fourth round on Monday morning. The 16th-seeded American moved to 7-0 all-time versus the fourth-seeded Wozniacki, defeating her 6-3, 7-6(1) to reach the quarterfinals.

The match started a bit strangely as both players exchanged break points through the first five games. Venus was the first to be able to hold and took a 4-2 advantage and allowing herself to serve out the remainder of the frame and take it 6-3.

In the second, Wozniacki looked to get things together and broke and held for a 5-3 advantage. On the verge of forcing the match to a third set, the Dane collapsed and lost 11 of the next 12 points to bring the set to 5-5.

Wozniacki still had a chance to send it to a third set as she broke again to go up 6-5, but followed it up with a poor service game which allowed Venus to break back and push the set into a tiebreaker.

The American owned the tiebreaker, winning the first five points before eventually closing it out 7-1 for the straight-set victory.

“Caroline plays so well. Our last match went down to the wire, and this one did too,” said Venus. “I just went for it, to be honest. I respect her so much that I knew I had to bring my best game.”

Venus was by far the aggressor in this contest and the statistics back it up. She had 37 unforced errors to Wozniacki’s 17, but had 43 winners compared to just nine for Wozniacki.

In the quarters, Venus will meet 12th seeded Spaniard Carla Suarez-Navarro, who stormed back from a set down to upend seventh-seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 5-7, 6-0, 6-4.

Venus and Suarez-Navarro have split the four meetings between the two.

The younger Williams sister also prevailed in her fourth-round contest on Monday. Serena had no problem defeating 29th seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-2, 6-3 and advance to the final eight.

The world number one and top-seeded Serena plays the winner of the match between Sara Errani and Sabine Lisicki.