TORONTO, Canada - A former champion in Montreal, Caroline Wozniacki snagged her first-ever win in Toronto with a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Ekaterina Alexandrova in the second round of the Rogers Cup on Tuesday night.
"It was a pretty good match. I kind of got to find my rhythm in the beginning but thought I served and returned very well," Wozniacki said. "Once I got going, I kind of started to play better. It's always nice to get a nice win in two sets in the first round, so I'm very pleased with that."
Like Venus Williams on Monday night, Wozniacki scored her first-ever win in Toronto; the 2010 champion at the Coupe Rogers in Monreal, Wozniacki was previously 0-4 in the Toronto edition of the event.
"It's really crazy that I hadn't won a match here before today," the Dane said. "I'm definitely very pleased and was a little bit nervous serving it out. I was like, 'Please, let me get this one' and I managed to."
"I don't think I have any other tournament where I've never won a match, so this one was kind of special, especially because I've played well at the Rogers Cup before, I've won Montreal and I've done really well. This one, I was just like, it has to happen before I retire one day."
.@CaroWozniacki ousts Alexandrova, 6-3, 6-0!
The former champion is moving on to the third round @rogerscup! pic.twitter.com/EXc6zZ9pn9— WTA (@WTA) August 9, 2017
The former World No.1 largely overwhelmed the Russian qualifier in the 61-minute encounter, as she broke serve five times and won the last eight games of the match.
Wozniacki sprinted out to a 4-1 lead in the opener, a run that included 12 of the first 15 points, but Alexandrova rallied to get the set back on serve with the precise power tennis.
The Russian put together her most impressive game of the match in the seventh game of the opener, as she engineered a comeback from 40-0 down in the seventh game to earn her lone break of serve.
From 40-0 down, Alexandrova conjures up some superb shot-making to get the first set back on serve! #rogerscup pic.twitter.com/4LX695geao
— WTA (@WTA) August 9, 2017
However, Wozniacki quickly rebounded with another break of the Russian's serve after the changeover, and wrapped up the set in short order on serve against the World No.88.
The Dane's momentum continued well into the second set, as she dug in on defense and came out on top in several lengthy rallies against her largely inexperienced 22-year-old opponent, who was playing in her first main draw at at WTA Premier 5 event.
Take a bow, @CaroWozniacki!
She's flying through the second set! #rogerscup pic.twitter.com/srJrFsZovW— WTA (@WTA) August 9, 2017
By the numbers, Wozniacki held the edge in nearly every statistic. The No.6 seed converted five of her 10 break points in the match, helped in large part by an incredibly effective performance on second serve returns.
Alexandrova landed just 58 percent of her first serves in the match, and Wozniacki won 73 percent of the points where the Russian was forced to hit a second serve.
In addition, the former World No.1 benefited from 17 unforced errors off of the Alexandrova racquet, and served at 73 percent in the match herself.
With the win, Wozniacki will await the winner of the second round match between No.10 seed Agnieszka Radwanska and Timea Babos, who advanced with straight sets victories over CoCo Vandeweghe and Bianca Andreescu, respectively, on Tuesday.