Wozniacki backs Serena for Istanbul

Oct 22, 2012 |

IANS

Moscow

Tags:

Serena Williams is "the favourite" to win the WTA Tour Championships in Istanbul next week, former World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki said after winning the Kremlin Cup tennis tournament here.

Wozniacki finished runner-up to Kim Clijsters at the Tour Championships in Doha in 2010, her second of three appearances at the event, but the Dane's tumble to 11th in the rankings this season means she will miss out.

"Serena is definitely a favourite always, indoors she's serving well and she has good shots," Wozniacki said Sunday, adding that it was "tough to say" who would come out on top in Turkey.

Wozniacki said she was disappointed not to have a place in Istanbul but was aiming to play well in the second-tier tournament of champions in Sofia, which starts Oct 30.

"Obviously you want to be playing in Istanbul, no doubt that's the goal at the beginning of the season. But that didn't happen this year and that's just something that is sports sometimes. I'm going to go to Sofia and just do my best," she said.

Wozniacki's defeated opponent in the Moscow final was Australian World No.9 Sam Stosur, who will be in Istanbul as first alternate for the tournament, to step in if one of the top eight automatic qualifiers retires.

"As far as Istanbul goes, I'm going there tonight, so I have one day to prepare and then if I have to play, then I'll be as ready as what I can be. Time will tell whether or not I get to play another match this year," Stosur said.

Wozniacki beat Stosur 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 to win the $740,000 indoor hard court tournament.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/197147" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-96b8ce1cb54030ca3098bc52f6ce2e8b" value="form-96b8ce1cb54030ca3098bc52f6ce2e8b" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="85444095" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>