Caroline Wozniacki deems to be seeded number one in New York
The Danish tennis player from the women’s side, Caroline Wozniacki has been seeded number one on the very first occasion in her career for the final major of the season, the United States Open tennis tournament, staring from today in New York.
Being a top-seed, Caroline while commenting on the pressure said, “You actually feel the pressure when you do not deserve to be there, however I don’t feel anything of the sort,” Caroline said on Sunday, a day before play begins in the city of New York. “In my opinion I deserve to be spotted the top favourite and therefore, am feeling no pressure at all.”
She is currently ranked number two in the world by the WTA, one spot behind the top-ranked American Serena Williams who withdrew from the United States Open tennis tournament a week ago as a result of her foot injury.
The United States Association of tennis strictly follows the WTA rankings, when specifying seedings; therefore Caroline was declared as the number one seed.
That made her the first tennis player from the women’s side after Kim Clijsters was seeded number one in 2003 at the United States Open tennis tournament, without having captured a major trophy. The 20-year-old Caroline is also the youngest female tennis players, leading the field since Maria Sharapova did it at eighteen back in 2005.
“You don’t get the top seedings as a stroke of luck or anything like that,” Kim said. “She (Caroline) undoubtedly deserves to be seeded number one at the Flushing Meadows.”
The Belgian Kim has so far won a total of two United States Open championships in her career back in 2005 and 2009, whereas Sharapova won the US Open title last time back in 2006.
Now Caroline feels her time has also come.
“To capture a major title is the ultimate goal of every player. It’s going to be really tough beyond any doubt as everyone is going to battle really hard till the end,” said Wozniacki, whose first-round opponent is Chelsey Gullickson, a wild-card entrant who is also the NCAA singles winner for the University of Georgia.
Caroline made her way into the final round of the United States Open tennis competition on the very first occasion back in 2009, falling to Kim Clijsters in straight sets. That appearance, Caroline said, “was a major confidence lifter for me and my belief strengthened that I can do it.”
As far as her recent results are concerned, Caroline has triumphed in a total of fourteen out of her last fifteen clashes, as well as two championships in a row, including a trophy at a hard-court warm-up competition in New Haven, on Saturday.
Her four trophies this year places her on top of everyone else on the tour. Caroline’s record of 44-14 this season also gives her the second-most match successes, one lesser than Flavia Pennetta from Italy.
“She has dramatically improved a great deal since the first time I faced her, several years back,” said the seven-time Grand Slam winner, Venus Williams. “She now plays with more maturity on the court and more importantly her mental strength as well as shot selection has also improved over the recent past.”
If she continues to play well right from the start of the United States Open tennis tournament, no one will be able to stop the professional tennis player from Denmark to grab the first U.S Open Grand Slam title of her career and as a result will soon overtake Serena Williams in world rankings as well.
“It’s all about playing smart at the right moments, grabbing your opportunities, with a bit of luck and all,” Wozniacki said. “Everything is going to happen in these two weeks so will we have to wait and see what happens.”
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