Caroline Wozniacki Sees Off Sharapova

Caroline Wozniacki comfortably came through her first real test at the U.S. Open as she faced former champion Maria Sharapova for a place in the quarter finals.

The Dane is the top seed at the tournament, it's the first time she has been the #1 seed at a Slam, and is looking to lift her first Slam title, after being a runner up twelve months ago.

Sharapova on the other hand is slowly returning to the form that saw her win the U.S. Open and Wimbledon titles as she finally looks to be getting over the shoulder injury that has hampered her the last eighteen months.

This was dubbed as the clash of the fourth round but it sadly didn't quite live up to it's billing as Wozniacki had too much for Sharapova, she dropped just seven games during her straight sets victory.

It was an error strewn performance from Wozniacki in the opening set, committing nineteen unforced errors, and this played into the hands of Wozniacki as she broke twice to take the opener 6-3.

In the second the pair rallied from the back of the court as Wozniacki showed the power that many doubted she possessed and with that came the vital break in the seventh game.

Despite a valiant fight from Sharapova she couldn't get the set back on level terms and Wozniacki wrapped up a 6-3 6-4 win.

Speaking to the BBC after the win Wozniacki said: "I definitely think I've improved a lot, not only physically, but also I believe in myself more.

"I believe I can do it. Also I think I can mix up my game a little bit more than I could last year."

She will now face Dominika Cibulkova as she saw off former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in two very competitive sets. Kuznetsova had been ahead 4-2 in the first set but the forty fifth seed battled back as the errors crept into the Russian's game.

Despite having the opening set under her belt it was Kuznetsova who got the early break in the second as she opened up a 3-1 lead but Cibulkova battled back again to take the next four games and hold two match points.

But she was unable to close the match as Kuznetsova broke back before holding her own serve to level at 5-5. They were still locked together at 6-6 and a tie break was needed.

Some poor serving from Kuznetsova saw Cibulkova take a 5-1 lead in the breaker and it was a lead that the former champion could not recover from as fell to a  7-5 7-6 (7-4) defeat.

Kaia Kanepi made a poor start in her fourth round match as she was handed a bagel set by last year's semi finalist Yanina Wickmayer. But the thirty first seed battled back to take the match 0-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-1.

Kanepi will now face Wimbledon runner up Vera Zvonarava as she had no such trouble dispatching Andrea Petkovic 6-1 6-2.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw