Madrid (Spain) – The experienced Italian Sara Errani will be Beatriz Haddad Maia’s first opponent at the WTA 1000 in Madrid. The 36-year-old athlete and former number 5 in the world came from qualifying and debuted in the main draw, defeating the Danish Caroline Wozniacki, former leader of the ranking and who received an invitation from the organizers, by 3/6, 7/5 and 6/4 in 2h50 of departure.
The confrontation between Bia and Errani will take place this Thursday, around 9 am (Brasília time) on court 4 of the Caixa Mágica complex. Furthermore, the 27-year-old from São Paulo is looking for an unprecedented victory in the main draw in Madrid, in her third participation in the event. Errani has three wins and one loss against the Brazilian on the circuit, but they have not faced each other since 2018.
Errani hasn’t beaten Wozniacki since 2008
Roland Garros finalist in 2012, Errani currently appears in 100th position in the WTA rankings and recently also reached the quarterfinals in Bogotá. The Italian achieved just her second victory in six matches against Wozniacki on the circuit, her first since 2018.
Eliminated in her debut, Wozniacki is 33 years old. She ended the first phase of her career in 2020, when she was dealing with rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease that limited her training and competition schedule. Mother of two children, the Dane only returned to playing in August last year and currently occupies 117th place in the rankings. Last month, she reached the quarterfinals at Indian Wells. Her main goal is to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games.
Italian used lobs and shorts to change the game
Faced with an opponent who defends herself very well, but doesn’t have as much power in her blows or as effective a serve, Wozniacki tried to dominate the points from the returns and play on top of the line, with greater initiative during the rallies. The Dane managed four breaks during the first set and easily led the winners statistics by 16 to 5, also making 16 errors against 10.
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The second set started balanced and with the servers dominating until the eighth game. Wozniacki, who had escaped three break points and missed a break chance, lost her serve and allowed the Italian to make it 5/4. In the final stretch of the set, Errani gave nothing away. She returned very well and sustained all the deep changes, using very well the short ones and even some higher balls, in addition to counting on mistakes from the Dane to win the partial. Wozniacki was 22 to 13 on winners, but made 14 errors to 5.
The strategy adopted by Errani of betting on short balls and bringing Wozniacki to the net continued to work very well in the third set and the Italian found the court open to defining points with lobs or passes. The Italian led 4/2, conceded the draw in the eighth game, but broke again and made it 5/4. The former top 5 player missed the first chance to serve for the game, but regained the advantage with a sequence of short shots and took advantage of the second chance to close out. Wozniacki made twice as many winners as Errani in the match, 58 to 29, but made 48 errors compared to just 20 for the Italian. Furthermore, Errani placed 91% of first serves on the court, without forcing the serve, but using good placements.
