Wozniacki cruises into Australian Open 2nd round

FILE – Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark hits a return against Sachia Vickery of the US during their women’s singles semi-final match at the WTA Auckland Classic tennis tournament in Auckland on January 6, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / MICHAEL BRADLEY

Caroline Wozniacki kept her quest for a first Grand Slam title on course at the Australian Open on Monday, cruising into the second round in straight sets.

On a day when a host of big names went tumbling, the second seeded Dane overcame tricky Romanian Mihaela Buzarnescu 6-2, 6-3 on Margaret Court Arena in an hour and 11 minutes.

She will next play either Japan’s Misa Eguchi or Croatia’s Jana Fett.

It had looked plain sailing for the woman who won the prestigious season-ending WTA Tour championships in Singapore when she raced through the first set in just 29 minutes and then took a 2-0 lead in the second.

But the 44th-ranked left-hander Buzarnescu, sporting a heavily taped shoulder, would not lie down and broke Wozniacki twice to lead 3-2.

Undaunted, the experienced Wozniacki, who first rose to world number one in 2010, reasserted her dominance, taking four games in a row to close out with a cry of “come on”.

“I knew it as going to be tough and I had to try to fight for every point,” said Wozniacki, who played an almost flawless match with just five unforced errors to her opponent’s 33.

“We know each other very well as we played each other like a million times in the juniors,” she said of Buzarnescu, who made her first WTA final appearance last week in Hobart.

“I knew she would be a dangerous floater.”

Earlier in the day fifth seed Venus Williams, 10th seed CoCo Vandeweghe and 13th seed and reigning US Open champion Sloane Stephens all made early exits, throwing Wozniacki’s side of the draw wide open.