Wozniacki into last 16 at the Open

Tuesday, 10 January 2012 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki has joined in-form third seed Victoria Azarenka in the fourth round of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park.

Wozniacki outclassed unseeded Romanian Monica Niculescu 6-2 6-2 in 76 minutes on Friday.

The top-seeded Dane will play either Serbia’s 13th seed Jelena Jankovic or American Christine McHale on Sunday for a place in the quarter-finals.

Azarenka earlier overcame a bout of serving yips to extend her unbeaten 2012 run to eight matches with a 6-2 6-4 victory over rising German Mona Barthel at Hisense Arena.

The third-round clash featured the two winners of last week’s Open lead-up events and the Sydney International champion came out on top after one hour and 28 minutes.

But Azarenka still endured some anxious moments against the surprise Hobart International winner, delivering seven double-faults in the tense second set before prevailing to book a last-16 match-up on Sunday with Czech Iveta Benesova.

After dropping just two games in her opening two matches, Azarenka was most relieved to have survived what proved a controversial finish to her third-round encounter.

The 22-year-old Belarusian had to save a break point while trying to serve out the contest in the 10th game of the second set before squeezing through on her fifth match point.

Having run out of challenges, Azarenka was furious after having a forehand called wide on her third match point and further enraged when Barthel’s forehand return on her fourth match point was called in when it appeared wide.

Azarenka eventually won when Barthel netted a forehand.

“I was a little bit blind today, but I’m sure the last one was out,” she said.

“I had a little bit of trouble closing out the match. But she played well on the match points.

“You cannot play flawless all the time.”

Benesova, who kick-started her summer campaign with a second-round upset win over Samantha Stosur in Brisbane, continued her strong form on Friday with a 6-1 6-3 defeat of Russian Nina Bratchikova.

Benesova is into the last 16 in Melbourne for the second year running, and Azarenka for the fourth time in a row.