By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday February 27, 2024
Anna Blinkova battled from a set and break down to hand Caroline Wozniacki a tough loss in San Diego.
Photo Source: Getty
World No.51 Anna Blinkova is proving to be a comeback artist in 2024, and on Tuesday in San Diego she took out a comeback queen.
The Russian rallied from a set and break down to defeat former World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1.
Blinkova, who improves to 4-5 on the season, will face fifth-seeded Dayana Yastremska in the second round.
Yastremska took out American Caroline Dolehide, 6-4 5-7 6-1.
"It was a crazy match," she said on court. "She was much better than me in the first set. I couldn't find solutions and I was down a set and 2-0. But I was just telling myself not to give up."
It’s not the first major comeback of Blinkova’s season. In January, the 25-year-old saved six match points to stun World No.4 Elena Rybakina 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(20) in a second-round epic that featured the longest tiebreak in Grand Slam history.
"It's never too late to come back,” Blinkova said. “I was thinking positively and fighting for every point. I was telling myself, you put all the balls in the court as much as you can, and I started to find my shots. I started to find the control."
Wozniacki has played 11 matches since beginning her comeback at Montreal last August, winning five. The 33-year-old reached the round of 16 at the US Open last season, and made the second-round at the Australian Open in January. She entered the week ranked 206.
In other action seventh-seeded Donna Vekic defeated Katherine Hui, 7-5, 6-2, while eighth-seeded Leylah Fernandez was forced to retire to Tatjana Maria, 6-7(7) 4-0 ret.
Fernandez was dealing with a shoulder injury, and needed to see the trainer after winning the 82-minute first set. The World No.32 didn’t have much to give after that and retired four games into set two.