Former No.1 Caroline Wozniacki on Sunday moved into the second round of the ongoing Australian Open after No.20 seed Magda Linette was forced to retire due to injury.
In her first match at Melbourne Park since 2020, Wozniacki led 6-2, 2-0 until Linette quit after 55 minutes. Linette, who was a surprise semifinalist in Melbourne last year, had an awful outcome. Wozniacki will face qualifier Maria Timofeeva in the second round.
“It’s never nice to see that. Magda’s a good friend of mine, I’ve known her for so many years. I obviously followed her last year and [saw] how well and unbelievable she was playing here so I knew coming into today’s match that it was going to be a very tough one,” Wozniacki said on the court as quoted by WTA.
“This is not how I wanted to finish it, and I really hope that it’s not too serious and that she’ll recover soon,” she added.
Wozniacki came out of retirement last summer for the North American hard-court swing and advanced to the round of 16 at the US Open. The Australian Open is her second Grand Slam appearance after returning to the Hologic WTA Tour. She began her season in the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand, where she lost in straight sets to Elina Svitolina in the first round. Earlier, on Day 1 of the 2024 Australian Open, seeded players Barbora Krejcikova and Leylah Fernandez defeated opponents rated outside the Top 100, while No.13 seed Liudmila Samsonova was defeated by resurgent Amanda Anisimova.
Fernandez of Canada defeated Czech qualifier Sara Bejlek 7-6(5), 6-2 in a clash between left-handers at John Cain Arena.
“It was a good match. It wasn’t a perfect match, but I’m just glad that I was able to fight through some of the tough moments that I encountered in the first set and just kept fighting.