Caroline Wozniacki clinches season end number one ranking – Part One
The absence of former world number one Serena Williams has proved highly beneficial for the twenty-year-old Dane Caroline Wozniacki, who recently secured her year-end number one ranking on the tour with her second victory at the
2010 WTA Tournament in Doha.
With a total of twenty one championships under her belt, six of them reaping crowns, it was just a matter of time before she overtook the long absent American Serena Williams to grab the top spot in the world. She reached the number
one ranking during the start of this month and in the process, Caroline also registered her name as the first contender from Denmark ever to hold the top position.
It has been an extraordinary performance by the Dane since the grass court Grand Slam tournament, as she has won a total of thirty-two matches for the loss of only two. Sadly for the Dane, one of those defeats was in the final
four round of the year’s final major, the United States Open in New York, where she was also seeded number one to win the title.
In a rain-postponed title battle at the China Open in Beijing earlier this month, the professional tennis player from Denmark did well to get the better of Vera Zvonareva and eventually record her 59th victory of the season.
Moreover, it was her second Premier title in as many weeks, as it came hot on the heels of the Dane’s victory at the Japan Open in Tokyo.
Caroline has now become one of the most popular tennis stars without any measure of speculations. Not only does she have a charming personality along with her peculiar style, but in fact she is also a powerful all court player
and that is the reason why she has reached the top level on the tour at such a young age.
Much has been achieved; however, there is still a lot for the Dane to accomplish and prove on the tour as she has still not won any major Grand Slam and she has yet to defeat the four Grand Slam winners in the women’s game, namely
Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters and the Williams sisters.
However, in practice, Caroline has had the chance to face just one of them since hitting her stride this season and that was in a lengthy, close three-setter against Justine in Miami back in spring. It is also worth mentioning
that the only battle the Dane has fought against Kim Clijsters was after making her way into the title battle of the year’s final Grand Slam, the US Open in New York back in 2009.
With both the American sisters as well as Justine missing from the WTA Championship in Doha this week, Caroline’s only chance to meet one of the four is the Belgian tennis sensation, Kim Clijsters in the knock-out stage of the
event.
Caroline has already done her job in the process by successfully qualifying for the semi-final round, as a result of which she also assured her season end number one ranking.
In her opening battle in Doha versus (now retired from tennis) Elena Dementieva, the Monaco resident, who made her debut on the WTA tour back in 2005, did well to beat her Russian foe in straight sets. In the next match, however,
contrary to everyone’s expectations, the Dane was defeated at the hands of Australian tennis ace, Samantha Stosur.
The 1.77 m tall Caroline, however, didn’t lose hope and went on to register her second victory of the tournament by brushing aside her more challenging foe, Francesca Schiavone to confirm her semi-final berth.
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