On Thursday, at Quebec City’s Bell Challenge, the last of the four bouts of the quarterfinals wrapped up splendidly. Winners included three non-seeded players, as well as the Number 5 seed, Canadian fan-favourite, Aleksandra Wozniak.
Wozniak has had a whirlwind year so far, having sped right through the rankings on her way to becoming the Number 37 player in the world this year. Thursday night’s featured match was between Wozniak and Carly Gullickson, who had been a past qualifier. However, she couldn’t seem to keep up as Wozniak took two sets to win the match. This means that out of her four separate appearances in this Tier III event, this will be her second time in the quarters. She has been here once before, in 2006, but was taken down by Lilia Osterloh, so she is certainly playing her best and is well aware of the high stakes involved.
Another player to successfully make her way into the quarter-finals in Quebec City was Nathalie Dechy, having taken down the number 7 seed player, Olga Govortsova. The first set went fairly quickly, with Dechy dominating, before the second set amped up the intensity and made for a much closer match before Dechy finally took the set to win. Galina Voskoboeva also won against Rebecca Marino, the Canadian qualifier who had done so well the day before, in the last match of the day. Finally, Angela Haynes took down Severine Bremond.
Both Haynes and Voskoboeva will move into the singles quarterfinals, in a Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, which will be the first for both women.
On Wednesday, the players to grab the first four of the quarter finals matches were Nadia Petrova, who is the number 1 seed, Bethanie Mattek, who is number 6 and two unseeded players, Melanie Oudin and Melinda Czink. These women will have quite a lot of work ahead of them, as only four will progress from Friday’s quarter finals. Petrova will face Czink, Voskoboeva plays Wozniak, Mattek will be competing against Oudin and finally, Haynes and Dechy will be playing each other. The competition will be fierce, to say the least.
Of all the players, though, Nadia Petrova has the most at stake for the matches on Friday, as beating Czink will mean that she will qualify for the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha. Her victory against Czink will give her a position as the second alternate in the tournament next week, meaning she will be competing with top players for quite a substantial prize. Another player had already taken the first alternate position, Agnieszka Radwanska, so Petrova has to play her best just to get the place she wants for the championship. If she does, in fact, lose to Czink, then the second alternate position will fall to Flavia Pennetta.
It seems that the matches on Friday will decide Petrova’s future in the Sony Ericsson Championship and with her quick climb back to the top spot, it would be a shame for her not to make it.
