Wozniacki produces stunning comeback

CAROLINE WOZNIACKI credited her competitive family for the fighting spirit that helped her recover from a seemingly impossible position against Jana Fett in the second round of the Australian Open.

The second seed looked certain to be making a premature exit when she trailed little-known Croatian Fett 1-5, 15-40 in the deciding set only to save the two match points and reel off six games in a row.

After completing her 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 victory, Wozniacki revealed she used Fett’s inexperience – the 21-year-old is ranked 119 and had never won a Grand Slam match prior to this tournament – to give herself the belief to come through.

The Dane said: “At 5-1, 40-15, I felt like I was one foot out of the tournament. She served a great serve down the ‘T’. It was just slightly out. I was kind of lucky.

“Then I felt her tighten up just slightly. I thought to myself, ‘make her win it, don’t give it to her’. When I managed to get it to 5-2, I said, ‘OK, I’m still alive. She still has four more balls to win’.

“She’s about to beat the number two player in the world. Obviously she’s about 100 in the world. That’s a big moment for her. I know how it feels whenever you’re close to reaching something really big. I’m very proud of the way I came back.”

Wozniacki hails from a very sporty family – her mother Anna played volleyball for Poland while her father Piotr was a professional footballer. But it was growing up competing against her brother Patrik, who is also a footballer, that drove Wozniacki’s will to win.

She said: “If you lose a game to anyone in my family, you’re going to hear about it for at least a week. That definitely helped me.

“Growing up, I never wanted to lose, and the worst was to lose to my brother. Giving him the opportunity to be ahead was not pleasurable.”