Ivanovic and Wozniacki Both Cruise Into Pacific Open Semis
Ana Ivanovic cruised into the Toray Pan Pacific Open semifinals with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Lucie Safarova on Friday. The win ends a five-match losing streak to Safarova, whom she hadn’t defeated since the 2008 French Open. The Serbian was the aggressor all-match long, attacking the net to put backline pressure on Safarova. Two break points gave her control of the opening set, and she ripped two aces to close out the set.
Things continued like that in the second, as she broke two more times before serving out the match to wrap up the straight-set victory.
“From the first moment, I tried not to think too much about the score and just the next point, the next game, and that’s what I did really well,” said Ivanovic after the match. “I was really pleased with that and felt that I played a really good match today.”
Ivanovic moves into the final four and will take on top-seeded German Angelique Kerber, who needed a little over an hour to move past Dominika Cibulkova 6-3, 6-0.
Former champion Caroline Wozniacki had no problems with her quarterfinal opponent either. The 2010 winner at this tournament cruised past Spain’s Carla Suarez-Navarro 6-3, 6-3 on Friday. She broke three times in the opening set on her way to the straight-set win.
“I thought I played a little better than I did yesterday, but at the same time it was a completely different player today, we had a lot of long rallies—it was definitely a tough ride out there,” said Wozniacki.
The U.S. Open finalist will take on 20-year old Garbine Muguruza in the semifinals. The Spaniard shook off 10 double-faults to outlast Australian Casey Dellacqua 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-3.
“She’s been playing well all week,” said Wozniacki of her matchup with Muguruza. “I need to make her run, take the ball early, need to serve and return well.”
