Clijsters will face longtime friend Daniela Hantuchova in the third round, and a win there could set up a fourth-round match against French Open champion Li Na, a rematch of the 2011 Australian final.
BY JOHN PYE | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MELBOURNE, Australia — Just the mention of Rory McIlroy’s name elicited a smile from Caroline Wozniacki.
The top-ranked Dane advanced to the third round at the Australian Open on Wednesday, and there were still three women in the field who had a chance of replacing her at the top of the women’s rankings. But instead of the usual questions about how she plans to end her drought at Grand Slam tournaments, she was asked if her boyfriend might be able to help her win her first major.
She smiled, paused, then relayed some of the advice McIlroy offered that helped him overcome similar pressure and win a golf major.
“Well, it’s just about you can’t really do anything about the past,” Wozniacki said. “You just need to look forward. You have a tournament now, and you want to do the best you can. That’s it.
“Then if it goes well, it’s great. If not, you have the next one. It’s like tennis.”
Also Wednesday, second-ranked Rafael Nadal advanced without much trouble from his injured right knee or from German veteran Tommy Haas in a 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 win. Four-time champion Roger Federer didn’t even need to pick up a racket because Andreas Beck withdrew from their second-round match.
The top-ranked American man bowed out when No. 8 Mardy Fish lost to Alejandro Falla of Colombia 7-6 (4), 6-3, 7-6 (6). But No. 16 John Isner survived a five-setter to beat former Wimbledon finalist David Nalbandian, who was enraged by an umpire who didn’t allow him to challenge a disputed line call because he took too long to ask for a review.
McIlroy was considered a major golf talent on the cusp of a breakthrough when he blew a four-stroke lead and lost last year’s Masters. He handled it with such humility that it didn’t surprise anyone when he rebounded to win the U.S. Open two months later, when he was 22.
Wozniacki has been on the precipice, losing the 2009 U.S. Open final. Since then, she’s held the year-end No. 1 ranking twice but never returned to a championship match. Meanwhile, she’s struck up a relationship with the golfer from Northern Ireland.
The 21-year-old Dane has taken up golf, to learn more about the game that she says is more about beating the course than other players.
“Of course, you can learn a lot, because when you’re leading or if you have a putt, you know, you make it nine out of 10 times in practice, but it can be really difficult,” she said. “It’s just a good way to learn the mental state of things in their game as well, and in a way to also try to get some of it over to the tennis.”
After racing through the first set in 28 minutes, she had some tough moments in a second-set battle but remained composed to beat Anna Tatishvili 6-1, 7-6 (4). Because of the heat, Wozniacki sat with a bag of ice on her head to cool off.
She moved into a third-round match against No. 31 Monica Niculescu. A win could put her on course for a quarterfinal match against defending champion Kim Clijsters, who routed Stephanie Foretz Gacon of France 6-0, 6-1 and then convinced the Rod Laver Arena crowd to sing “Happy Birthday” to her sister, Elke.
Clijsters will face longtime friend Daniela Hantuchova in the third round, and a win there could set up a fourth-round match against French Open champion Li Na, a rematch of the 2011 Australian final.