Women seeded No. 1, in a Grand Slam tournament,
Caroline Wozniacki spent the time watching Rafael Nadal plays his first game, reading a magazine and jogging at the gym.
When they finally set foot on the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium, Wozniacki played like someone in a hurry.
In search of her first major title of 2009
U.S. Wozniacki Open runner-up won the NCAA Champion Chelsey Gullickson 6-1, 6-1 in the first round at Flushing Meadows.
Due to the long previous games, it began at 11:52 pm Tuesday night and ended at 12:53 am Wednesday.
"Thanks for sticking around," said Wozniacki what remained of the crowd in the stadium after Arthur Ashe, "but I know it has been a long night."
The University of Georgia Gullickson, daughter of former major league pitcher Bill Gullickson, took the first two points of the match, smacking good performance in both services and hitting a forehand cross-court winner to go to love-30. The third point was typical of the patient, who-without error-Wozniacki: It took 22 hits and ended when Gullickson dumped a forehand into the net.
However, Gullickson conjured another forehand winner to earn a break point after a minute of play. Wozniacki erased it with an ace of getting better and are served in the next two points, too, to hold serve and went to get a start of 3-0.
Gullickson, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, was making his debut in a Grand Slam two days after his 20th birthday. Not classified and got into the tournament with a wild card.
"She's hitting the ball very hard. She has a really big game," said Wozniacki, who turned 20 in July. "I know it's hard to be here for the first time ... but I am sure that with the experience, she will return to play harder."
Wozniacki has been quite a run lately.
The victory gave the most victories in 15 of their last 16 games. He has won three of the four tournaments he has entered before arriving in New York, including a title in New Haven, Connecticut on Saturday. All these events were on hard courts, like the U.S. Open.
And it does not try to high-risk shots more, preferring to stay along the base line and collect their points of attention.
Against Gullickson, Wozniacki hit only six winners, five fewer than his opponent. But here's the key Wozniacki game: He made a grand total of seven unforced errors, while Gullickson had 30.
The only problem throughout the night to Wozniacki, in fact, was to pass the time until their opportunity to play. A win in three sets by Jelena Jankovic schedule began on Tuesday in the main stadium, followed by a win in five sets by Novak Djokovic, followed by a three-set win over Russian Maria Sharapova. The evening session was to begin at 7 pm, but was delayed about 1 ½ hours, so even though Nadal won in three sets, Wozniacki Gullickson started around midnight.
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