Caroline Wozniacki went to see Taylor Swift play London’s Hyde Park last Sunday night with her best friend Serena Williams. If the Dane is looking for some kind of musical inspiration for her tennis just now, she could do worse than regularly humming a few bars from Swift’s song Shake It Off at moments of potential crisis on court.

When Wozniacki’s second-round encounter with Denisa Allertova got underway after a short delay for rain, the No.5 seed looked to be cruising to victory on Court 12, without a single unforced error in the opening five games and on course for a simple win at 6-1, 5-1. But then the Czech world No.83 began reeling off a stack of winners to grab five games on the bounce, with a surge of momentum that looked certain to force the match into a nerve-jangling decider. So maybe Wozniacki remembered the lyrics to Shake It Off as she recovered her composure, stopped the rot and then edged the tie-break to take a satisfying victory 6-1, 7-6(6) in 86 minutes.

You certainly do, which can be tough when your opponent produces 30 winners and your own number is 12 short of that mark. Fortunately for Wozniacki, Allertova’s errors were so many that they all but nullified her winners. She committed a particularly awful volley mistake at 4-4 in the tie-break which could have changed the course of the match. Moreover, there was a particularly noticeable mirror image in the aces-to-double-faults ratio – six to nothing for the Dane, and nothing to six for the Czech. These facts tell their own story, namely that Allertova could have done significant damage if she could have reined in the disastrous error count. But as this was her first Tour-level grass court tournament, perhaps it was inexperience showing.

Meanwhile Wozniacki – who turns 25 on the day of the women’s final here – is in the third round, just one stage short of her matching her oft-repeated Wimbledon best. Four times she has been in the last 16, and four times she has fallen. She has a good-looking draw this time, with clear trouble ahead only at the quarter-final stage in the looming form of Sabine Lisicki, if the seedings pan out. But potential trouble lies around every corner – she faces the No.31 seed Camila Giorgi next, and the Italian actually leads their career meetings 2-1.

“You don’t know what to expect with Camila,” said Wozniacki. “She hits every ball as hard as she can, and either it goes in or it doesn’t. I need to keep pressure on her, return well, serve well, try not to let her dictate – once she does that, she’s dangerous.”

Maybe thanks to her career record of never getting beyond the fourth round here, few have Wozniacki marked down as a serious contender at The Championships. But she was girls’ champion here nine years ago, and was looking good on the Eastbourne grass before Wimbledon until a lower back injury forced her semi-final retirement against ultimate victor Belinda Bencic.

“I always feel like a contender,” said Wozniacki, who exited both the Australian and French at the second round stage this year. “I’m No.5 in the world, so of course I do. I put pressure on myself to do well. I’m positive about playing here.”

Her variable form was highlighted last year by the fact that after Roland Garros she was 27th on the Road to Singapore Leaderboard, yet qualified among the elite eight by the season’s end after a great second half to the year.