Outside court will be tricky, Caroline Wozniacki says after easy Dubai win

The Danish world No 1 seed has been forced to play her quarter-final match against Shahar Peer today on the smaller outside courts because of security concerns of the Israeli player.

Dubai // Caroline Wozniacki, the No 1 seed who has been forced to play her quarter-final match against Shahar Peer today on the smaller outside courts because of security concerns, admits her Israeli opponent will have the advantage having played her three matches there.

Wozniacki, the world No 2, was in blistering form on centre court in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships last night, needing only 52 minutes to brush aside the world No 57, Ayumi Morita, 6-1, 6-0 and set up a quarter-final clash with the ninth seed Peer.

If she wins the game against Peer to get into the last four, Wozniacki will be back at the top of the world rankings on Monday, after having been displaced by Kim Clijsters this week.

But the Dane expects a few difficulties in adjusting to the outside court, where Peer beat her last year.

"She has a big advantage there," said Wozniacki. "Playing on the centre court every match and then suddenly you have to play on an outside court, on a small court, it's completely different.

"So definitely I'll to have get used to that.

"It's quicker; there's not so much space on the sides; there's not really a crowd; the atmosphere is just different on that court. And, yeah, the ball is travelling a bit differently.

"I remember last year I struggled to find my rhythm in the beginning because the balls, the court was really much faster.

"But, you know, I got the experience from last year. Hopefully it will help me this year. I just need to stay positive and just try to play like I did today. Hopefully that'll pay off."

Peer, ranked No 11 in the world, has played all her matches on Court 2 because managing security there is a lot easier than at the 5,000-seater centre court.

Wozniacki understands the situation and said: "I don't know how the security issue is.

"Of course, the most important for me is that I'm safe.

"You know, if they think that it's not safe to play on centre court, then of course I'll play on Court 2.

"Of course, I would have loved to play on centre court, no doubt about it. It's a nice court, and has Hawk Eye as well. I'm just going to go out there and play."

In last night's late game Jelena Jankovic beat Kaia Kanepi 2-6, 6-3, 7-5.