MELBOURNE – Second-ranked Caroline Wozniacki fended off two match points and rallied from 5-1 down to win the last six games in the third set and avoid a second-round upset at the Australian Open.
Former No. 1-ranked Wozniacki used her experience to save match points in the seventh game of the deciding set against No. 119-ranked Jana Fett, who was making her main draw debut at a major, and eventually pull off a 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 win.
“That was crazy,” said Wozniacki, who has reached two Grand Slam finals and was a semifinalist here in 2011. “I don’t know how I got back into the match.
“She’s a tricky opponent and she had nothing to lose. And then I think she realized she was up 5-1 and she let off the speed just a little bit, and I was like, this is my last chance. I have to go in and attack.”
Wozniacki won the next nine points, and 24 of the 31 points played from when she first faced match point. She clinched a 75-minute third set on her first match point when Fett netted a backhand.
A loss for Wozniacki would have seriously opened up the bottom half of the draw following the first-round defeats of 2017 finalist Venus Williams, US Open champion Sloane Stephens and No. 10-seeded CoCo Vandeweghe.
No. 4-seeded Elina Svitolina is the next highest-ranked player on that side, and she next plays 15-year-old qualifier Marta Kostyuk – the youngest player to win main draw matches at Melbourne Park since Martina Hingis in 1996.