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Wozniacki out, Azarenka in

Caroline Wozniacki’s bid to regain the number one ranking suffered a blow at the Qatar Open when she was beaten in the second round by Lucie Safarova.

Wozniacki, who lost the world number one status when she was beaten in the semi-finals of the Australian Open, threw away a golden chance to bag a few more points towards her ranking when she failed to close out the match on Wednesday.

With three match points at 5-4 and 0-40 in the third set, the Dane could only watch as her Czech opponent clawed her way back in and then went on to win the match in a final set tie-break, 4-6 6-4 78-6 (3).

Of course it’s disappointing but I have to move on and do better in the next one,” said Wozniacki.

It was a day of sharp contrast for the new world number one Victoria Azarenka, who was playing her first match since claiming the top spot and the Australian open title.

Up against Germany’s Mona Barthel it was a one-way routing as Azarenka claimed a simple 6-1 6-0 victory. In fact, the only blip was the one game she lost which was on her own serve.

“You can never say the match was easy, because no matter what the score is you still have to put a lot of effort,” Azarenka told the WTA website.

“Also, to win easy sometimes takes more effort than if you stayed there for a longer period of time. But I’m just happy the way I played and am taking it match by match.

“Whoever is in the draw is in the draw. I have to play against them. I’m not scared and I don’t run away from my opponents. I go out there and face them.”

In other results, third seed Samantha Stosur beat Sorana Cirstea 6-4 7-6 (5) while fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska saw off Anne Keothavong 6-1 6-2 and Marion Bartoli, seeded fifth, defeated Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-2 6-0.

But it was not all good news for the seeds as Francesca Schiavone and Jelena Jankovia both lost while sixth seed Vera Zvonareva was forced to retire with a hip injury.

“I’m disappointed I couldn’t finish the match, but I did everything I could,” she said.

“I’ve always had great memories from Doha - I’ve been here so many times and had some great results, and I was looking forward to playing my best and trying to defend my title. But this is all part of the game.

“I’ll rest for a few days and we’ll see. Hopefully it’s not too serious.”