Caroline Wozniacki ousted in straight sets at U.S. Open

There will be no second Grand Slam this season for Caroline Wozniacki.

The reigning Australian Open champion and the U.S. Open’s No. 2 seed was ousted by Lesia Tsurenko 6-4, 6-2 on Armstrong Court Thursday night.

Tsurenko controlled the match, pushed the pace, won the foot races, produced the most effective groundstrokes and got her serve under control after some early hiccups.

“As I said before the match, I wanted to be more aggressive as I can and more patience as I can,” said the 29-year-old from Ukraine, who scored her biggest victory ever in a Grand Slam. “I think I did really well.”

And she did it after calling a medical timeout in the first set to have her right wrist/forearm area worked on. She was down a break and Wozniacki had gone up 3-1.

But Wozniacki made a mess of things, getting into a funk of unforced errors and giving up four service breaks to lose it. Her forehand was backfiring, especially off of neutral balls, while Tsurenko was consistently driving the ball deep and flat.

“She was playing smarter than me,” Wozniacki said. “She played the game that I was supposed to be playing. She got a lot of balls back. She played with the angles. She waited for the short ball. When the short ball came, she played aggressive. She went back and kept the ball in play when she had to.”

After holding her first two serves of the second set, Wozniacki was broken twice, allowing Tsurenko to easily serve out the match. Wozniacki made 35 unforced errors, and critically, hit only six winners. Tsurenko had 20 of them.

“I am little proud of myself,” said Tsurenko, who felt the pro-Wozniacki crowd was swinging to her side. “I was just feeling the atmosphere of my team, of everyone who came here to see this match. I was hearing my name.”

Wozniacki follows No. 1 seed Simona Halep out the Open door. Halep lost the very first match on the new Armstrong Stadium on Monday to Kaia Kanepi.

Perhaps the new Armstrong is fast becoming the Graveyard of Champions, a possibility Wozniacki brought up.  “Guess Wimbledon used to have a Graveyard Court. Maybe that is going to be the new Graveyard Court,” Wozniacki said. “I think it's a little too early to tell.”