While playing against Aliaksandra Sasnovich from Bulgaria in the second round of the 2014 U.S. Open, Caroline Wozniacki’s braid got stuck on her racket. The No. 10 tried her best to hit a backhand despite the mishap, but could not make proper contact with the ball, and therefore lost the point.
But anyway Wozniacki ended up wining the match 6-3 6-4, and will play 18th seed Andrea Petkovic of Germany in the third round.
“I was like, Okay, which way is it tangled?” she told the media after her win. “I was trying to kind of figure it out. I was like, Maybe if I pull it, it will untangle itself. But it just didn’t happen. I didn’t know whether to just laugh at it or be annoyed or which emotion to have.”
Fortunately the Dane did see the funny side of the whole story, and tweeted pictures of the incident with the caption, “Hair trouble! Maybe I need a haircut!”
Wozniacki had reached the final of the US Open back in 2009. “It used to happen when I didn’t braid my hair. That’s why I started braiding it. Once it gets to a certain length sometimes it can get stuck in the arm or the racquet. It’s a first, you know, when it’s braided that it’s been stuck that good in my racquet,” said the 2009 finalist. “I still tried to hit the ball. Almost took my head off.”
In other news, another former World No.1 Jelena Jankovic was also in action on Wednesday and also recorded a similar straight sets win. The Serbian, who was playing former Wimbledon semi-finalist Tsvetana Pironkova, won her match in an hour and 36 minutes.
Moreover Sloane Stephens falls in second round. The 21-year-old American had her earliest loss at the U.S. Open, upset in the second round Wednesday by 96th-ranked Johanna Larsson. Larsson rallied to win 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 to match her best performance at a major tournament. The 26-year-old Swede had been 0-4 at Flushing Meadows before this year.
“Things just got a little shaky. Obviously she played some good games after that,” Stephens said after the match. “Start of the third set I tried to just put it behind me and came out swinging. I did.”
4th-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska also fell to China’s Peng Shuai. Madison Brengle lost to 26th-seeded Sabine Lisicki of Germany 6-4, 6-1. In primetime, 19th seed Venus Williams beat Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland 6-1, 6-4.
