Reigning champion Victoria Azarenka wasted little energy in making the Australian Open quarter-finals Monday as Svetlana Kuznetsova roared back to form with an upset win over Caroline Wozniacki.
The top seed took less than an hour to dispose of Elena Vesnina 6-1, 6-1 to set up a last eight meeting with the veteran Kuznetsova, a two-time Grand Slam winner who spent two months on crutches last year.
The experienced Russian needed a tense 2hrs 28mins to oust 10th seed and former world number one Wozniacki 6-2, 2-6, 7-5.
“The top battles are starting now,” said Azarenka, looking ahead to her next match. “I’m really excited to be so far in the tournament again.”
The Belarusian world number one was in red-hot form off the baseline against Russia’s unseeded Vesnina, but seven double-faults blotted her performance.
Vesnina, who won the Hobart International warm-up tournament, has never beaten a world number one and did not look like improving her record on Monday.
Azarenka immediately broke in her opening service game to pile the early pressure on, and broke again for a 3-0 lead with the Russian having no answers to her opponent’s sizzling forehand.
She finally held serve to get a game on the board before the top seed wrapped up the set in 33 minutes.
While Azarenka’s ground-strokes were near faultless, her serve was wayward and this gave Vesnina a glimmer of hope, but she failed to capitalise.
There was no stopping Azarenka, who needs to defend her title to have any chance of remaining world number one, with Williams and Maria Sharapova breathing down her neck, as she raced to victory.
Kuznetsova has dropped down the rankings to be 75 in the world, but she showed her quality against Wozniacki, who has been struggling for form.
It was a courageous win by the Russian after an injury to her right knee forced her to skip a big chunk of 2012.
The injury meant she missed all post-Wimbledon events including the US Open, which ended her streak of 40 straight Grand Slam appearances dating back to 2002 at Flushing Meadow.
But Kuznetsova, who won the 2004 US Open and 2009 French Open, said she was feeling fresh again and delighted to be in her first Grand Slam quarter-final for two years.
“I think the tournament in Sydney helped me a lot because I had a few matches,” the 27-year-old said of the lead-up event to the opening Grand Slam of the season.
“I have been working hard, but still I didn’t have much time to do what I like to do with my fitness, condition and everything else.”
“So, it’s amazing,” she added, of making the last eight.
The defeat was another disappointment for Wozniacki, whose preparations for Melbourne were hurt by going out early at both the Brisbane and Sydney International tournaments.
“Obviously I would have loved to have won today, but it didn’t happen,” said the Dane, whose golf-star boyfriend Rory McIlroy also had a poor start to his season, missing the cut in Abu Dhabi on Friday.
“There is still a long year in front of me. There are still a few things I can work on and, you know, it can be better.”