Top seed Wozniacki crashes out of Medibank International

SYDNEY - Top seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark Tuesday lost her opening match of the season at the WTA Medibank International tennis tournament.

A day of rain interruptions did little to make life easier for the 20-year-old in the second-round match, which she lost to Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 3-6, 3-6.

Third seed Kim Clijsters continued to roll as she put out Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 6-1, 6-4 while China’s eighth seed Li Na beat Virginie Razzano of France 6-4, 1-6, 6-4.

Wozniacki, still looking for a first career Grand Slam title, has had a busy pre-season, playing energy-draining exhibitions in Thailand and Hong Kong before finally venturing onto court for a serious match more than a week into 2011.

She is now likely to head to Melbourne to try to quickly regain form with that city’s Australian Open starting Monday.

“At the start of the new season, you always need to get into the match play,” said Wozniacki, who has bettered the 32nd-ranked Cibulkova 5-1 in their career series.

“I didn’t feel that I was playing great tennis out there.

“I just need to get some sets going and some training matches, head to Melbourne and get ready.”

She acknowledged her travel schedule was straining but refused to blame it for her performance.

“Definitely, it is a bit tough to go from Hong Kong to Sydney and play really well here,” she said.

“That is something I have to take into consideration.

“But I felt pretty good out there. It just wasn’t my day. Hopefully, I can practise again tomorrow and get some points going. I just need a few matches, like I said, and I will be fine for Melbourne.”