World No. 11 Caroline Wozniacki returns a shot on Thursday. (Yonhap News)
No. 1 seed Caroline Wozniacki advanced to the quarterfinals of the KDB Korea Open tennis tournament here Thursday.
At the only annual Women’s Tennis Association stop in South Korea, Wozniacki defeated Caroline Garcia of France 6-2, 6-3.
After easily taking the opening set, Wozniacki, ranked 11th in the world, took a 4-1 lead in the second set.
But Garcia won the next two games to cut the deficit to one.
Wozniacki broke Garcia’s serve to lead 5-3, and battled the French to deuce before claiming the decisive game.
Wozniacki, a former No. 1 WTA player, will face Klara Zakopalova of Czech Republic in the quarters on Friday.
Zakopalova, seeded seventh here, beat Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia 6-1, 7-6 (6).
Zakopalov was the runner-up in singles in 2010 and a semifinalist last year.
In the day’s other second round contests, Tamira Paszek of Austria defeated Lee So-ra of South Korea 6-2, 6-0, and Varvara Lepchenko of the U.S. beat Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain 6-4, 6-1.
Paszek and Lepchenko will meet in the quarters Friday.
Lee, 18, was the only South Korean left in the singles competition at the Korea Open. She had made it to the second round after her first round opponent, second-seeded Maria Kirilenko, retired from their match with a back injury on Wednesday.
(Yonhap News)
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
