Tennis: Venus, Wozniacki Win At Family Circle

An early exit at the Sony Open and a postponed humanitarian trip to Haiti left Caroline Wozniacki with a big hole in her schedule —something she was glad to fill with a trip to the Family Circle Cup.

The 2011 Family Circle champion won her sixth straight match here with a dominating 6-1, 6-1 victory over Silvia Soler-Espinosa on Wednesday.

Venus Williams, who won this tournament in 2004, began play with a 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 victory over 19-year-old Monica Puig of Puerto Rico.

The second-seeded Wozniacki didn’t count on getting ousted from her last event in Key Biscayne, Fla., in the round of 32. Then, boyfriend Rory McIlroy delayed a mission visit this week that she planned to attend so he could tee it up at the Valero Texas Open and prep for the year’s upcoming first major championship at the Masters next week.

She entered as a wild-card Saturday, two days before the Family Circle kicked off.

“I was not playing matches and thought I’d basically have four weeks off’’ until playing at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany, later this month,” she said.

‘’So I just decided this would be a great week for me. We’ll just see how it goes.’’

It went very well for Wozniacki on Billie Jean King Court.

She won seven straight games during one stretch, overpowering Soler-Espinosa with her 100 mph serves. She broke Soler-Espinosa twice to win the final five games of the opening set.

Wozniacki continued to use her big serves – she took a 3-1 lead in the second set on a 111 mph ace – to keep Soler-Espinosa on the defensive and wrapped up the match in 59 minutes.

Wozniacki had reached the finals of the Indian Wells tournament, but was knocked out of her last event, Sony Open in Key Biscayne, in the round of 32. She acknowledged it’s generally hard to transition smoothly from the faster hardcourt surfaces to the clay.

Wozniacki, though, felt prepared and confident.

‘’I felt like I really served well and returned well today,’’ she said. ‘’I’m pleased with that.’’