Women's US Open - Woz proves title credentials

Caroline Wozniacki produced her best performance in a grand slam as she defeated Maria Sharapova, 6-3 6-4 in a superb 4th round encounter. The first set started with some electric rallies however the quality faded as Sharapova's serve went AWOL giving away the first break of the match at 2-1 with 3 double faults in a row. Wozniacki took the first set producing less errors and with some excellent serving which has been one of the biggest improvements of her game this year and is now becoming a weapon. The second set started superbly with a series of lengthy games as Sharapova changed her gameplan by really attacking Wozniacki and mixing up her game with some drop shots. However Wozniacki stood strong and improved in the second set producing more winners especially on the backhand side. It was Wozniacki who made the breakthrough at 3-3 and she managed to close the match out superbly. Wozniacki played a great match however Sharapova was disappointing as she produced too many errors and was very inconsistent on her serve. She also seems to have lost some of her mental toughness which has helped her to three grand slam titles as she made errors at crucial stages of the match.

In other matches, Dominika Cibulkova set up a QF with Wozniacki as she shocked Svetlana Kuznetsova with a 7-5 7-6 victory. Kuznetsova led 4-2 in the first set but from then on she struggled to find her rhythm as Cibulkova dominated the rallies and kept the pressure on Kuznetsova, who claimed afterwards she was disappointed by an early start. However Svetlana can only blame herself for this surprisingly lacklustre performance after a series of good performances over the last two months. Vera Zvonareva cruised into the QF with a 6-1 6-2 victory over Andrea Petkovic and will now play Kaia Kanepi who produced a gutsy comeback to defeat Yanina Wickmayer, 0-6 7-6 6-1. Kanepi was 6-0 1-0 down and looked to be heading for a heavy defeat however she managed to get her foot in the door and keep the second set competitive. Kanepi then raised her game at the latter stage of the set as Wickmayer's game began to crumble as she took the second set on a tiebreak. Kanepi then cruised through the final set as she recorded her second consecutive grand slam QF after her run at Wimbledon.