Wozniacki hits top form

Wayne Gardiner,Pa
Friday 24 June 2011 10:23 EDT
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Caroline Wozniacki believes she deserves a bigger stage than Court Two but stopped short of joining Serena Williams in criticising Wimbledon chiefs after reaching the third round.

The order of play committee put the world number one on the same court as Williams played on yesterday, after which the reigning Wimbledon champion made her displeasure known.

Wozniacki beat Virginie Razzano today, dropping just four games inside the 4,000-seat venue where Williams overcame Simona Halep.

While leading men such as Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic have all played on Court One so far, none of them have dropped down to the much smaller Court Two.

Wozniacki is happy to play wherever SW19 chiefs decide in pursuit of her maiden grand slam title.

But the 20-year-old Dane said: "Obviously I think I deserve to play on one of the bigger courts, and everyone wants to play in there.

"It's up to the tournament to decide where we're going to play. I just go out there and try to win. I'm a competitor so it doesn't really mater. The court is the same and the size is the same. I just go out there and play.

"Hopefully in my next match I will have the chance to play on one of the bigger ones. We will have to see."

When it was put to her that Nadal, her equivalent in the men's rankings, would not be asked to play on Court Two, she added: "Yes, but at the same time Serena played on Court Two and she has won here so many times.

"So if she can play on Court Two, then I guess I can too."

The way the Wimbledon schedule works means that Centre Court, with or without its roof, usually hosts two men's matches every day to just one from the women's half of the draw.

It was put to Wozniacki that a rejig of that tradition would result in more of the women getting time in the spotlight, but she is happy to go along with whatever the tournament organisers wanted.

"I think it's tradition here and traditions are tough to change here," she said. "And if I remember correctly, Pete Sampras played one time on the Graveyard Court (the old Court Two).

"This is Wimbledon. You just need to play. I think some days it would be nice if there were two women's matches in there (Centre)."

Wozniacki looked every inch a world number one as she dismissed Razzano in an hour and 11 minutes, cruising to a 6-1 6-3 win.

She made just one unforced error in a wonderful display of hitting, most notably on her backhand which kept Razzano pinned behind the baseline, often scrambling to recover the ball.

Despite the recent trend of the top-ranked woman failing to deliver in grand slams, Wozniacki insists she is putting herself under no extra pressure to validate her position as the game's leading lady.

"I think I deserve to be where I am," she said.

"I've won so many tournaments, five already this year. I'm playing good tennis, I'm young, I'm competitive. My time will come.

"Obviously you want to win them, but everybody else wants to be number one. Right now I have one of those two and I want to try to keep it as long as possible. I'm going to try to fight to win a grand slam as well."

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