Caroline Wozniacki crushes McHale

Caroline Wozniacki advances to the quarter finals. Photo / Michael Craig

Beware the great Dane. Caroline Wozniacki has advanced to the quarter finals of the ASB Classic with a crushing 6-0 6-2 win over American Christina McHale.

With six of the eight seeds gone, including Venus Williams and Caroline Wozniacki, the 25-year-old is now the obvious favourite for the tournament - and is happy to wear that tag.

"I always think I can go on and win the title, no matter where I play or who I play," said Wozniacki. "I played well today and hopefully I can keep that up and raise my level."

McHale is no slouch - she has been as high as 24 in the world and hasn't been out of the top 100 since 2010.

But she was made to look second rate by the former world No1, who was much improved on her nervy showing in Tuesday's first round match against Danka Kovinic.

"It was a better start than [Monday]," said Wozniacki. "I served well, returned pretty well. I had patience but came to the net a few times, mixed it up a bit."

Wozniacki forced five break point opportunities in the first set alone - converting two of them - and only lost two points when her first set landed.

The second set continued in the same vein and Wozniacki looked set to record her fourth career `double bagel' (a 6-0 6-0 scoreline) but McHale fended off a match point at 0-5 and then - finally - held serve To the crowd's delight, the American broke Wozniacki in the next game and saved a total of four match points before the third seed finally sealed victory in just over 70 minutes.

"I blew a few match points at 5-0 and 5-1 but it was nice to finish it off," said Wozniacki.
Wozniacki faces Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru in the quarter finals on Thursday. The Dane has won all three of their previous clashes, including the final in Malaysia last year.