Tennis pin-up Caroline Wozniacki has celebrated her New Year’s Eve engagement to golf superstar Rory McIlroy with her first win of 2014 at the Sydney International.
Wozniacki rallied from a set down to advance to the second round of the Australian Open lead-up event with a 3-6 6-2 6-4 victory over German Julia Goerges.
The fighting win snapped a streak of three consecutive losses to Goerges, who had gained entry to the main draw as a “lucky loser” despite retiring from the qualifying tournament on Sunday with an ankle injury.
The world No.73 earned a spot on Monday after American Sloane Stephens withdrew with a wrist injury, but failed to make the most of her good fortune after an encouraging start against the fourth seed.
Wozniacki’s comeback win saved the tournament from being stripped of its headline act in the women’s event.
Fellow former world No.1 Jelena Jankovic already bombed out earlier on Monday, the Serbian fourth seed falling 6-4 6-2 to Russian Ekaterina Makarova in a first-round boilover.
German fifth seed Angelique Kerber also had a tough opener, but survived with a hard-fought 7-6 (7-5) 7-5 win over Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova to reach the second round.
Kerber next meets Kaia Kanepi for a place in the quarter-finals after the Estonian outclassed American qualifier Victoria Duval 6-1 6-3.
Australian Jarmila Gajdosova’s forgettable streak continued with a first-round loss to another American qualifier, Lauren Davis.
The one-time world No.25 has slipped to 265th in the rankings after going 12 months without a win on the WTA Tour and required a wildcard into the Australian Open lead-up event.
But her tournament lasted just two sets, with Gajdosova going down 6-4 7-6 (10-8).
Her latest defeat, though, was tempered by news later on Monday that she’d won a wildcard into the Australian Open starting next Monday.
In other matches, Czech left-hander Lucie Safarova beat former French Open champion Francesca Schiavone 6-4 6-4, American Bethanie Mattek-Sands ousted Canadian Eugenie Bouchard 6-4 6-3 and American Varvara Lepchenko defeated dual grand slam winner Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3 3-6 7-5.