Canada’s Wozniak advances to fourth round at Indian Wells tennis tournament

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. – Aleksandra Wozniak reached the fourth-round of the BNP Paribas Open on Monday with a 6-1, 6-7 (3-7), 6-0 defeat of Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

The Blainville, Que., player who has struggled with a shoulder injury for more than a year set herself a huge test in the next round. She will face world No.2 and top seed Li Na after the two-time Grand Slam winner beat Czech Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 6-4.

This event marks the first time since late 2012, when her shoulder problems began, that the Canadian ranked No. 241 in the world has gone past the second round at a WTA-level tournament.

Wozniak was pleased to advance after fighting and losing a second-set tiebreak but dominating in the final set to sweep to victory.

“I”ve had a tough year and a half with my shoulder,” she said. “It was a good match for me today. Russians are always tough, I had to being my ‘A’ game today.”

Wozniak claimed victory in just under two hours, committing 10 double-faults in the match but breaking on nine of 13 chances.

In the men’s event, tenth seed Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., will test his healing ankle injury against Alejandro Falla of Colombia. Raonic won their previous meeting on clay in Barcelona in 2012.