Top seed Caroline Wozniacki has made an early exit from the ASB Classic in her build-up to defending her Australian Open singles title later this month.
On her sixth visit to Auckland, the Danish world number three was bundled out of the second round by Canadian qualifer Bianca Andeescu, 6-4 6-4, in 2h 12m.
Wozniacki's depature is the earliest she's left the year's first WTA tournament, after losing the 2018 final to German Julia Goerges and the 2015 final to American Venus Williams. Those two players are now favoured to meet in this year's title match on Sunday.
The Dane rode her hot form into Melbourne last year and produced her maiden Grand Slam title, but her defence of that crown ran into a road block against teenager Andreescu, who showed grit to close out the contest in a hotly contested second set.
For her troubles, the world number 152 now faces seven-time Grand Slam winner Williams in the quarter-finals.
Order of Play - Friday, January 4
Centrecourt
Noon start
(WC) Amanda Anisimova (USA) vs Viktoria Kuzmova (Slovakia)
Eugenie Bouchard (Canada) vs (2) Julia Goerges (Germany)
Eugenie Bouchard (Canada)/Sofia Kenin (USA) vs (4) Xinyan Han (China)/Darija Jurak (Croatia)
7pm start
(Q) Bianca Andreescu (Canada) vs (6) Venus Williams (USA)
(3) Su-wei Hsieh (Chinese Taipei) vs Sara Sorribes Torma (Spain)
Newshub.
