Daily Times

TOKYO: Caroline Wozniacki ended her string of final failures by beating Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-0 7-5 in Tokyo on Sunday to win her second straight Pan Pacific Open title. The former world number one, who has now won the event three times, was contesting her seventh final of the season after losing the previous six. The 27-year-old Dane, seeded third, burst out of the gate behind a strong service game with two aces in a 21-minute first-set rout, looking fresh after her straight-sets triumph over world number one Garbine Muguruza the previous day. By contrast, Pavlyuchenkova’s gruelling three-set semi-final win over Angelique Kerber appeared to have taken its toll and she struggled with accuracy, registering three double faults in the set.

After being swept aside in the opener, Pavlyuchenkova was far more competitive in the second and held her serve throughout until Wozniacki converted her third match point to break once more and seal victory in the 12th game of the set. “It was my seventh final of the year and obviously after a while it gets harder and harder to get that last one,” Wozniacki said in a courtside interview at the Ariake Coliseum, which will host the tennis events at the 2020 Olympics.

“But I went out there and I just stayed focused and stayed aggressive, especially in the beginning and then it was going my way,” added Wozniacki, now ranked sixth in the world. Overall, Wozniacki sent down six aces and failed to register a double fault or offer up a single break point, while her unseeded opponent coughed up five double faults without managing an ace. Wozniacki’s 26th career title also ensured that the Dane maintained her streak of winning at least one WTA tournament every year since 2008 as she became the fourth player to have captured the Pan Pacific Open title three or more times.

The 26-year-old Pavlyuchenkova had been seeking her third title of the year and the 11th of her career.

Published in Daily Times, September 25^th 2017.