Wozniacki rallies to beat Lucic-Baroni in Linz opener

LINZ, Austria — Caroline Wozniacki was the only player among the top-five seeded women to reach the second round at the Generali Ladies, rallying to beat Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4 on Wednesday (early Thursday in Manila).

Third-seeded Roberta Vinci of Italy lost her first-round match against Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia 6-1, 6-7 (3), 6-1.

Top-seeded Lucie Safarova and No. 4 Andrea Petkovic both lost on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila), while No. 5 Anna Karolina Schmiedlova withdrew because of illness.

No. 6 Camila Giorgi joined the exodus later Wednesday in the second round as the Italian, who reached the final here last year, was beaten by Margarita Gasparyan of Russia 6-3, 2-6, 6-3.

In other second-round play, Madison Brengle of the United States missed six match points before beating Johanna Konta of Britain 6-3, 7-5.

In her fourth quarterfinal of the season, Brengle will take on Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany, who defeated Andreea Mitu of Romania 7-5, 6-3.

The 11th-ranked Wozniacki, who is seeded second, went up 2-0 in the opening set but won only two points in the next five games against Lucic-Baroni. She missed a set point at 5-4 in the second set but turned the match around in the tiebreaker.

Wozniacki will play Belgium's Kirsten Flipkens for a place in the quarterfinals.

Krunic, who hit six aces, lost her opening service game against Vinci but took 10 of the next 12 games for a 6-1, 4-2 lead. The U.S. Open finalist broke back and converted her first set point in the tiebreaker but she didn't recover from going 5-0 down in the final set.

The 99th-ranked Krunic improved to 3-0 against Vinci after also beating the Italian at Wimbledon and in Bucharest this year.