Wozniacki warms up for Wimbledon by retaining her Danish Open title

Opting to stay at home and play on hardcourts rather than get the grass under her feet ready for Wimbledon, she easily beat fourth seed Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic 6-1 6-4.

Fourth seed Safarova, the world No?38, had been a slow starter all week, coming back from a set down in each of her matches en route to the final, and the left-hander was immediately broken by Wozniacki in her first service game.

Despite some hefty groundstrokes Safarova proved far too erratic to worry the ever-solid Wozniacki as the first set whizzed by in Copenhagen.

Wozniacki broke ominously at the start of the second set but a couple of tight line calls against her and a double-fault allowed Safarova to break back.

With the Danish crowd clapping her on at every important point, Wozniacki immediately broke again to lead 3-2 and regain the upper hand, with her trademark two-handed backhand proving a potent weapon.

Wozniacki held her nerve as the remaining games went with serve, eventually sealing her fifth title of the year when Safarova made two more unforced errors.

The 20-year-old, who did not drop a set all week, will now head to Wimbledon for some much-needed practise on grass, hoping to improve on last year's showing when she was beaten 6-2 6-0 in the fourth round by Petra Kvitova.

"I'm so pleased to have won for the second year in a row," Wozniacki said afterwards. "It's a special feeling on my home court, but it wouldn't have been quite so special without the support."

Meanwhile, in Birmingham, the Aegon Classic final between Sabine Lisicki and Daniela Hantuchova was postponed until today after persistent rain showers prevented play yesterday.

Organisers waited for seven hours for the weather to improve before postponing the match until 11 o'clock this morning.

The doubles final was played indoors yesterday with no spectator access for health and safety reasons and it had been hoped that the singles final - due to take place at 10am - would get under way. However, tournament director Patrick Hughesman said: "Obviously we are greatly disappointed that we were not able to finish the Aegon Classic finals today but hopefully people will take the opportunity to buy some great value tickets for tomorrow's final scheduled for 11am."

Lisicki, who is looking for her second career WTA title and was given a wild card for Wimbledon earlier yesterday, made the Wimbledon quarter-finals in 2009, but is still trying to regain her best form following a five-month injury layoff that saw her drop out of the top 200 in the rankings.