Wozniak snaps drought but stumbles in Q4

Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak snapped a 20-year drought by reaching the quarter-finals of the rain-plagued WTA Tour’s Rogers Cup with a 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 win over American Christina McHale on Saturday. Wozniak is the first Canadian woman to reach the quarter-finals of this event since Patricia Hy-Boulais in 1992. “Today I just wanted to finish off the match quickly and be able to rest for my next one,” Wozniak said. “I came back and played aggressive and now I’m going to go back and try to recover for the next match. Wozniak lost later in the quarters to seventh seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark 6-4, 6-4 in the hardcourt tournament. Other quarter-final winners on Saturday comprised China’s Li Na and Czechs Lucie Safarova and Petra Kvitova. Li routed Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2, 6-1, while Kvitova beat Tamira Paszek of Austria 6-3, 6-2 and Safarova breezed past Roberta Vinci of Italy 6-2, 6-2. Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic endured a second frustrating day of rain delays with the top seed defeating fellow Serb Janko Tipsarevic 6-4, 6-1 on Saturday to reach the final of the Toronto Masters Djokovic, who came away empty-handed from the London Olympics, waited out a long rain interruption for the second day in a row as he and fifth seed Tipsarevic had to pause for 90 minutes in the sixth game of their semi-final. Djokovic, who won his last title in Miami in March, needed one and three-quarter hours to defeat Tipsarevic, who had won two of their last three. The top seed broke three times and held off seven break points on his own serve, including four in the final game. He earned the win following a break of Tipsarevic for 5-1 which required four deuces. Djokovic will face Richard Gasquet in the final, who defeated John Isner 7-6 (7/3), 6-3, with the American later withdrawing from the Cincinnati Masters with a bad back.