Sam Stosur is facing a pivotal second round matchup with former world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki at the China Open.
Stosur cruised past Italian Francesca Schiavone 6-4 6-2 in their first round matchup last weekend, smashing five aces and winning 75 percent of his first serve points.
The 2011 US Open winner needed just 90 minutes to down Schiavone, capitalising on her opponent’s shaky service game to take an 8-1 break advantage.
Stosur heads into the Wozniacki matchup trailing 4-3 in head-to-head encounters, including losses in the previous two meetings.
But while Stosur will be fully focused on the task at hand, the admittedly worn down Wozniacki may be already be looking ahead to a potential upcoming quarterfinal clash against Serena Williams.
“It’s the best players here in the world are playing, so it’s obviously a very hard tournament to play,” Wozniacki told media members over the weekend.
“I think I’m in the quarter with Serena, so it’s obviously not easy,” she noted after losses in nine of her past10 meetings with the current world No.1.
“In the end of the day, it’s one of the last tournaments of the year so we are all a little tired. It’s the end of the year and you never know what happens.”
Stosur finally fell out of the top 10 in 2013, drifting all the way down to No.18 by the end of the year, but her current ranking of 21 could be in for another hit after a number of early exits in recent months.
Fellow Aussie Casey Dellacqua’s stellar 2014 campaign took another stumble after a first round loss to tournament seventh seed Angelique Kerber.
Dellacqua exited 6-1 3-6 6-3, just days after the 29-year-old was ousted from the inaugural Wuhan Open in China at the hands of Wozniacki, failing to put up much fight in the 6-0 6-3 loss.
Dellacqua has stormed up the WTA rankings to claim the No.27 spot a year after she fell to a career-low ranking of 209.
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