Wozniacki bids farewell after third-round setback
Caroline Wozniacki’s farewell tour at the Australian Open is over.
The 2018 champion lost her thirdround match 7-5 3-6 7-5 to Ons Jabeur at Melbourne Arena yesterday.
Wozniacki said late last year that she would retire from the game after the Australian Open in order to spend more time with her family and because she has been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 2018.
She sat in her court-side chair wiping tears from her eyes before doing an oncourt television interview.
‘‘I think it was only fitting that my last match ended with a forehand error,’’ the former No 1-ranked Wozniacki told the crowd, smiling through the tears.
Jabeur is into the fourth round for the first time in a major. She will play either 23-time major winner Serena Williams or Wang Qiang, of China.
Meanwhile, Ash Barty is starting to feel right at home at Melbourne Park.
The top-ranked Australian was the first player to secure a spot in the fourth round of the Australian Open, and thinks she’s starting to regain the momentum that helped get her to the top of the rankings and a first major title last year.
Barty fended off eight break-point chances before beating Elena Rybakina 6-3 6-2 in the opening match yesterday at Rod Laver Arena. The 20-year-old Rybakina had won 11 of her first 12 matches of the season, winning the title in the tuneup tournament in Hobart after reaching the final in Shenzhen.
Barty, the French Open champion, won her first title on home soil in Adelaide last week and, after dropping the first set she played at Melbourne Park, has advanced through three rounds without losing another set. She had a tough start against Rybakina, having her serve broken in the opening game, but otherwise felt good about her latest win.
‘‘I felt I needed to be switched on. A lot of the games were long and tough and happy to get out of them,’’ she said. ‘‘Today was probably my sharpest match that I played [this summer].’’