Former World No 1 Caroline Wozniacki moved into the quarter-finals of the Bad Homburg Open powered by Solarwatt, the WTA 250 event in Germany, where she will meet Emma Navarro, while Diana Shnaider ended Dayana Yastremska’s hopes, and Katerina Siniakova set up a Last 8 encounter with Donna Vekic.
Wozniacki, a wild-card into the main draw, was an impressive 6-2 6-4 winner over Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova, taking 6 games in a row to close out the first set, and then going up 2-0 in the second, aided by converting 70% of points on her serve, compared with 49% for her opponent.
The Dane earned her first grass-court match-win since 2019 by upsetting 21st-ranked Elina Svitolina in this week’s opening round, and she followed up with a 1-hour and 24-minute victory over the World No 36.
Last summer, Wozniacki returned to tour and played 3 events following a 3-year hiatus, during which she had her 2 children Olivia and James.
Wozniacki has played a more robust schedule this year, and is now into the 2nd quarter-final of her come-back, also reaching the Last 8 at the WTA 1000 in Indian Wells.
After the Dane reeled off 6 straight games to lead 6-2, 2-0, Kudermetova took a medical time-out to be seen by tournament physios.
The Russian was able to claw back on serve at 4-4 in the second set, but, 2 games later, Wozniacki broke serve at love to wrap up the win.
Next up for Wozniacki will be Emma Navarro, the No 3 seed, who handled fellow American Peyton Stearns, 6-4 6-1, improving her record against her compatriot to 4-1 at tour level with the 66-minute win.
Last year, Navarro reached her first career WTA singles semi-final at Bad Homburg ranked No 60, before losing to eventual champion Siniakova.
Now, 12 months later, Navarro is a Top 20 player ranked No 9 and facing Wozniacki for the first time.
Defending champion Siniakova completed a two-day 2nd-round encounter by ousting No 2 seed Liudmila Samsonova from Russia, 6-3 6-7(3) 6-3.
Play was suspended overnight at 2-2 in the second set, and Siniakova, the World No 27, lost a tight second set upon resumption, but she held on in the third to win her 7th straight match at the tournament.
Siniakova, who also reached the Bad Homburg final in 2021, will take on Croatia’s Donna Vekic in the quarter-finals, whom the Czech has beaten in 4 of their 5 career meetings, including a grass-court win in 2016 Birmingham qualifying.
20-year old Diana Shnaider from Russia, meanwhile, was an easy 6-2 6-2 winner over Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska, needing just 77 minutes to advance to a Last 8 showdown with Spain’s Paula Badosa.
The match between Beatriz Haddad Maia, the 4th seed from Brazil, and Russian wild-card Anna Blinkova for the last quarter-final slot has yet to be played.
