Concrete Blonde: Wozniacki Outhits Sharapova

trong>Maria Sharapova‘s mental toughness; how the steely Russian never quits; how she’s always had a knack for fighting back when things look gloomy, including her recent comeback from shoulder surgery.

Somewhere along the line Caroline Wozniacki got overlooked.

Sure, we knew the ’09 U.S. Open finalist was a tireless baseliner who could retrieve with the best of ’em, force her opponents to hit a ton of balls and keep even the speediest of players off balance. But she was a tad too defensive; she could’ve benefitted from more of an attacking game, right? And with Serena Williams sidelined, was she really a top seed anyway?

But the No. 2-ranked Dane likely won’t get overlooked again. Sporting yellow tights (and yellow fingernails to match), the 20-year-old bullied Sharapova from the baseline, and with her clean, near-error-free play scored a head-turning 6-3, 6-4 win in one hour, 53 minutes, booking a spot in the quarterfinals against Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova, who earlier in the day upset No. 11 seed and ’04 USO titlist Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-5, 7-6(4).

It turns out that Wozniacki’s got some grit, too.

“I think I’m a really tough player,” she said. “I never give up. Doesn’t matter what the score is. And I think that makes me tough to beat, as well. I think that’s one of my strengths.”

Coming into the match, Wozniacki had dropped just three games — the fewest conceded in reaching the fourth round at ANY Slam since Mary Pierce dropped two at Roland Garros in ’94. She was coming off titles in Montreal and New Haven, and rode the momentum from an 11-match winning streak right into the first set against Sharapova, applying the pressure early.

Sharapova managed to fight off a pair of break points in her first service game. But with game point on her racket in the fourth game of the first set, she double faulted three straight times to give Wozniacki the break and a 3-1 advantage. Although she would later score a break of her own to pull within 4-3, Sharapova was subsequently broken at love, and Wozniacki then served out the set.

Sharapova double faulted away another break at 3-3 in the second set, and Wozniacki, who finished with only 10 unforced errors, never looked back.

For Sharapova, the numbers weren’t as kind: 36 unforced errors, nine double faults.

“Even with those unforced errors, I still had my chances and I was one for nine on breakpoints,” said Sharapova, who last reached the fourth round in 2006, the year she won the title. “Against someone that’s playing really well, playing with a lot of confidence, it’s really important to take those chances that you have, the very few that come your way. I felt like I played a couple of good points and then make an easy error, hit a return long or miss a first serve, give her many looks at second-serve returns. You know, didn’t feel like I put much pressure on her.”

“I knew I could win,” said Wozniacki, who won her WTA Tour-best 48th match of the year. “But I knew it was going to be tough. I knew that I had to fight for every point. I knew that she wasn’t going to go away. I knew she was going to hang in there and keep fighting till the end.”