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Blainville’s Aleksandra Wozniak to the second round at the BNP Paribas Open

INDIAN Wells, Calif. – This is the last of eight tournaments for which Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak can use a special injury protection ranking to gain entry.

After that, with her true ranking at a stark-reality No. 241 after missing much of the last two years with a shoulder injury, she’s on her own.

So the 26-year-old is trying to maximize in the California desert.

A comprehensive, 6-2 6-0 drubbing of Urszula Radwanska of Poland Thursday in the first round of the BNP Paribas Open was a good start.

“I breezed through the match, I can say, because I thought it was going to be tighter. I thought I played well tactically, strategically I was moving her. She mixes up her pace, she gives you softer, then quick balls, so you have to adjust to that, but I’ve played her many times,” Wozniak said. “I’m happy with the win. I need the points. I need matches, so it’s good.”

Wozniak joins Toronto's Sharon Fichman, who went through the qualifying, in the second round of the singles draw. The third Canadian woman, No. 18 seed Genie Bouchard, makes her Indian Wells debut Friday against Shuai Peng of China.

For Wozniak, the biggest thing Thursday was that she was able to avoid the trap she has sometimes fallen into since she began her comeback from injury – a tendency to sit back a little too long early in the match, trying to get a read on her opponent.

That read is taking longer than it did before her enforced break; these days, that can mean Wozniak is down 0-2, or 1-4, and is always playing from behind.

Radwanska, the younger sister of top player Agnieszka Radwanska, is coming back from a shoulder injury layoff of her own.

But she has played some matches; against Wozniak, she really didn’t put up much resistance. She didn’t even throw any tantrums, as she sometimes can.

“It was good because I was able to construct points with her,” Wozniak said. “She’s not a hard-hitting player – the kind that has a big serve, big return and two or three rallies, and that's it.”

Radwanska is part of a little Polish clique on the WTA Tour – players playing for many different countries, ball with Polish roots.

The Radwanska sisters actually do hail from Poland. But that group also includes Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, Angelique Kerber and Sabine Lisicki of Germany and Wozniak, whose fathers all are Polish.

“It’s tough to play against Polish. You don’t want to get in their face too much. We all have respect towards each other,” Wozniak said.

The younger Radwanska isn’t exactly known for that kind of on-court respect. But she didn’t pull out any of her patented drama Thursday. “Today she wasn’t, because I think she had respect for me – it wasn’t like the other girls, with the big show. And she uses that to distract her opponents,” Wozniak said.

Next up for Wozniak, of course, is another member of the clique – Lisicki, the No. 15 seed, who is a far tougher customer and a former Wimbledon finalist.

And she’s just that type of player Wozniak was talking about – a big serve (Lisicki was breaking 120 mph during her doubles match Thursday with coach and partner Martina Hingis) and a big forehand.

There won’t be much time to work her way into the match, or for Wozniak to construct her points.