 Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 24 Jan 2006 |  Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 24 Jan 2006 |  Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 24 Jan 2006 |  Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 24 Jan 2006 |  Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 24 Jan 2006 |  Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 24 Jan 2006 |  Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 24 Jan 2006 |  Photographer: Ron Angle
Date: 24 Jan 2006 |
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| 24 Jan 2006 - Melbourne Park - Eleanor Preston | |
| Relaxed Wozniacki Stays On Message In Melbourne |
Top seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark revealed she has a secret weapon in her bid to win a debut Grand Slam title at the Australian Open. The 15-year-old said she has been using special meditation tapes before she goes on court to put her in the right frame of mind for winning matches.
“I’ve been working on keeping all the pressure off myself and taking things one point at a time and one match at a time and it’s really helping,” said Wozniacki after ending the hopes of Great Britain’s sole entry in the juniors, Jade Curtis 62 62. “I have a tape I listen to before I walk on court which really helps, it’s a tape of voices telling me to relax and be calm and breathe deeply. I listen to it in the locker room and it helps me to think about what I have to do in the match.”
Wozniacki was in imperious form against Curtis and says she can feel the improvement coming with every passing moment on court. “I was playing well today and she was playing a bit up and down,” she said. “She had some really good games and then at other times she was making lots of mistakes. I think I was more consistent. I feel like I’m getting better and better with every match. I really like these courts because I like a slow court where the ball jumps up high, so it suits me perfectly.”
Wozniacki was cheered on by a motley group of Scandinavian fans, who joined in one of the noisier traditions of Melbourne Park by chanting for their player while decked out in flags and hats with horns.
“It was very funny,” said Wozniacki. “There was only one Danish man, the rest were Swedes but you know us Scandinavians, we like to stick together! It was lovely to have a bit of support out there.”
Wozniacki will be hoping for revenge over 16th seed Timea Bacsinszky in the third round after blowing match-points to lose to the Swiss at Roland Garros last year – “Hopefully this time I will walk off court happy. I know how she plays and that helps, and I know I can beat her.”
Both Wozniacki and Bacsinszky survived but fellow seeds Alize Cornet of France; Bibiane Schoofs of the Netherlands and Evgeniya Rodina of Russia all went out of the tournament in the second round. Cornet lost to the USA’s Chelsea Gullickson, Schoofs was beaten by Australian Jessica Moore and Rodina went down in three sets to Katerina Vankova of the Czech Republic.
There were no such problems for tenth seed Anna Tatishvili of Georgia, who set up a third round meeting with Canada’s Sharon Fichman with a 76 62 win over Russian Natalia Orlova.
“I felt pretty good. I kind of made all my mistakes in the first set. I think it comes from it being early in the season. I definitely played better today than I did in my first match and that’s a good sign. I’m taking little steps. I trained for a month especially for the Australian Open. It’s kind of slow, more like a clay court than a hard-court, and it takes some getting used to, but I quite like it.”
In the boys’ competition, top seed Thiemo De Bakker extended his winning streak to 20 matches in a row with a straight sets defeat of Australia’s Edward Bouchier. Seeds Kellen Damico of the USA and Nikola Mektic of Croatia were knocked out though, losing to Australia’s Nick Lindahl and Estonia’s Jaak Poldma respectively.
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