CAROLINE WOZNIACKI apologised to her fiancé and her dad after nerves threatened to stop her reaching her first Aussie Open final
Piotr Wozniacki, her father and coach, and husband-to-be David Lee, the former NBA star could only watch as the No 2 seed faltered when serving for the match and almost allowed Elise Mertens to force a deciding set in their semi-final.
But the former No 1 saved break point and won the resulting tiebreak convincingly to seal a 6-3 7-6 victory.
Wozniacki joked: “At the start of the tournament my dad had dark hair. Now it’s all greay.
“I apologise to you David for the couple of grey hairs you got today.
“In my semi final here in 2011 I was serving for the match against Li Na and I had a match point and I lost it.
“That was definitely in my mind today. I felt like my legs were shaking a little bit.
“I tried to stay calm. I was lucky to come through and win.”
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Goodness knows how nervous Wozniacki will be if she serves for the match in Saturday’s final.
The Dane is now just one win away from ridding herself of the unwanted tag of being a world No 1 who could not win a Slam.
She has twice been a runner-up, at the US Open in 2009 and 2014.
Wozniacki was in total control for 70 minutes and was 30/0 up when serving for the match at 5-4.
But then the jitters struck and she threw in some double faults on the way to handing world No 37 Mertens a way back into the match.
The Belgian had two set points two games later, but Wozniacki gathered herself and forced a tiebreak which she won 7-2.
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