Wozniacki Eyes Rare Five-Peat In New Haven

Written by: Staff on 18th August 2012

Wozniacki Eyes Rare Five-Peat In New Haven

epa03334956 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark in action during her Women's Singles Quarterfinal against Serena Williams of the USA at the London 2012 Olympic Games Tennis competition in Wimbledon, Greater London, Britain, 02 August 2012. EPA/ANDY RAIN |

Original link; http://www.wtatennis.com/news/20120819/wozniacki-eyes-rare-five-peat-in-new-haven_2256076_2890950

Final US Open preparations take place in New Haven, Connecticut and Dallas, Texas this week, at the Premier-level New Haven Open at Yale and the International-level Texas Tennis Open.

Headlining the field over in New Haven are four Top 10 players – Agnieszka Radwanska, Petra Kvitova, Caroline Wozniacki and Sara Errani – as well as another four players lurking just behind them in the No.11-20 range – Marion Bartoli, Dominika Cibulkova, Maria Kirilenko and Lucie Safarova.

Wozniacki has the potential of a special milestone this week. Having won the last four years in New Haven, if she wins again this year, she will become just the fourth player ever to win a WTA title five years running (after Chris Evert at Charleston, Steffi Graf at Hamburg and Martina Navratilova amazingly at three different tournaments – Eastbourne, Wimbledon and Chicago).

There are a slew of other former top players within the unseeded pack, but one of them might jump out a little bit more than the others – she finished 2011 in the Top 10 and looked headed for even bigger success in 2012 before back and ankle injuries sidelined her for most of the first seven months, but Andrea Petkovic is back, and the former World No.9 kicks off against a qualifier.

A few former Top 5 players are also looming in the unseeded contingent – former No.4 Francesca Schiavone and former No.5 Daniela Hantuchova.

Co-World No.1s Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond are the No.1 seeds in the doubles draw, followed by Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka at No.2.

Over in Dallas there’s also some Top 10 star power in the form of World No.7 Angelique Kerber, whose laser-like last 12 months started right there 12 months ago, where she made the semifinals, a result that propelled her to her breakthrough run to her first Grand Slam semifinal at the US Open.

The other seeds are Jelena Jankovic, Roberta Vinci, Yanina Wickmayer, Klara Zakopalova, Peng Shuai, Chanelle Scheepers and Sorana Cirstea.

Iveta Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova are top seeds in doubles.

Topics: Agnieszka Radwanska, Caroline Wozniacki and Sara Errani, Petra Kvitova, Tennis News, Women Tennis