Caroline Wozniacki and her run in 2011 – Tennis Special
As Caroline Wozniacki celebrates her 21st birthday, we here at “bettor.com” take a look at her run in the 2011 season so far. Hailing from Denmark, Wozniacki retains her No. 1 title in the Sony Ericsson Women Tennis Association
(WTA) Tour, until at least the beginning of August 2011. But her utter failure to build on the strengths and successes that have been the hallmark of her career up till 2010 only means that she will eventually have to bow out from atop the leadership rankings.
The Dane is the first player from her country to have clinched the No. 1 spot and as of today she has held her position for an enviable 39 weeks. Wozniacki has so far bagged 17 WTA singles titles and two WTA doubles titles. Her
three WTA wins in 2008, three in 2009, six in 2010 and five in 2011 all tally to a total of seventeen wins. All these are impressive but yet so far she hasn’t been able to capture the elusive Grand Slam title, even once. The one time International Tennis Federation
(ITF) World Champion needs to amalgamate her strengths, namely her strong two handed back-hand and defensive playing strategy and develop a much more decisive fore hand, in order that she retains her place in professional tennis.
2011 started off on a disappointing note for Wozniacki when she lost to Kim Clijsters at an exhibition match in Thailand. She lost 3–6, 6–4, 10–12. This defeat was followed by another, at the Hong Kong Tennis Classic where she
captained Team Europe. After forging her way to the finals, she lost to Team Russia 6-1, 6-0 led by world No. 2 Vera Zvonareva. The humiliation did not end here as she succumbed 6-3, 6-3 to Dominika Cibulkova at the Medibank International Sydney, her first
WTA outing of the year.
Caroline then got a chance to cement her reputation by winning her first major title at the Australian Open. Li Na, her competitor and by far the best Chinese player outclassed here in the semi-final at Melbourne and won 3-6, 7-5,
6-3. Intermittently Caroline had to hand over here top spot to eventual champion, Kim Clijsters but quickly regained the title within a week in February, winning the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, marking her 13th career WTA singles title
and the first one this year. In March 2011, Caroline bagged another title, her 14th at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, California. It was beginning to look like she was able to perform at the important events, especially when a win was most
required, but in her next major tournament the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Florida she again lost in the fourth round to 21st seed Andrea Petkovic 7–5, 3–6, 6–3.
She rallied on to win her 15th, 16th and 17th titles at the Family Circle Cup, Brussels Open and e-Boks Sony Ericsson Open respectively. Overall Caroline managed to reach the finals in a mere six
tournaments this year and performed par average in most of them.
However, critics often regard her miserable performance at tennis’ premier event Wimbledon as the final nail on the coffin of her career. The way Wozniacki capitulated to her opponent, the 24th seed Dominika Cibulkova,
in the fourth round of the tournament is an embarrassment indeed. Many angry fans think that she doesn’t deserve the No. 1 title because of her inability to win a Grand Slam. But she is still only 21, a nimble age and plenty of time to improve and try again.
Indeed one can expect tremendous things from her, provided she continues to improve her game.
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