Wozniacki rallies to beat Lucic-Baroni in Linz opener
LINZ, Austria (AP) Caroline Wozniacki was the only player among the top-five seeded women to reach the second round at the Generali Ladies, rallying to beat Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4 on Wednesday.
Also, Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia defeated third-seeded Roberta Vinci of Italy 6-1, 6-7 (3), 6-1, while Madison Brengle of the United States missed six match points before beating Johanna Konta of Britain 6-3, 7-5 and reach her fourth quarterfinal of the season.
Top-seeded Lucie Safarova and No. 4 Andrea Petkovic both lost on Tuesday, while fifth-seeded Anna Karolina Schmiedlova withdrew because of illness.
The 11th-ranked Wozniacki, who is seeded second, went up 2-0 in the opening set but won only two points in the next five games against Lucic-Baroni. She missed a set point at 5-4 in the second set but turned the match around in the tiebreaker.
Wozniacki will play Belgium's Kirsten Flipkens for a place in the quarterfinals.
Krunic, who hit six aces, lost her opening service game against Vinci but took 10 of the next 12 games for a 6-1, 4-2 lead. The U.S. Open finalist broke back and converted her first set point in the tiebreaker but she didn't recover from going 5-0 down in the final set.
The 99th-ranked Krunic improved to 3-0 against Vinci after also beating the Italian at Wimbledon and in Bucharest this year.
Brengle used one break against Konta's serve to take the opening set but struggled to close out the win. The 42nd-ranked American missed four match points while serving at 5-4 and needed three more chances at 6-5.