Caroline Wozniacki faces tough path to US Open title
US Open top seed Caroline Wozniacki will arrive at Flushing Meadows as the in-form player in women’s tennis – and just as well given the tough path to the final she’s been handed by the draw.
Winning the US Open title this year would cap a remarkable rise to the game’s elite for Wozniacki, who could become a Grand Slam champion and the world’s No. 1 ranked player all in one day if she can do so.
The draw though has done the world No. 2 no favours, and in a worst case scenario Wozniacki will play triple Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova (who is herself hitting form at the right time) in the fourth round; former US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarters (the 11th seed also turning around a disappointing season in recent weeks); fourth seed Jelena Jankovic or Wimbledon runner-up Vera Zvonareva in the semi-final; and defending champion Kim Clijsters in a repeat of the 2009 final, which Clijsters won in straight sets to complete her fairytale comeback three tournaments into her return to tennis after more than two years away from the game.
It’s a stark contrast to the smooth ride Wozniacki had to the final last year, where a fourth-round match against then sixth-ranked Kuznetsova was her toughest test. After winning that one in three sets, however, she ended 70th-ranked Melanie Oudin’s giant-killing run in the quarter-finals, and polished off then world No. 50 Yanina Wickmayer in straight sets in the semis, before Clijsters extinguished her title hopes in the final.
So Wozniacki looks set to be tested in 2010, but current form would indicate that she’s up to the challenge. It was on Monday at the Rogers Cup in Montreal that the 20-year-old dispatched both Kuznetsova and Zvonareva on the same day to take the title (which she added to the one she’d claimed in Copenhagen just a couple of weeks earlier) after persistent rain delayed the semis and the final.
She’ll potentially have to get past Sharapova first though if she’s to face either – or both – of that pair, and while it’s worth noting that the pair haven’t played one another since 2008 and Wozniacki is a vastly improved player two years down the line, Sharapova won both the matches they played that year for a 2-0 career win-loss record against the top seed.
Then, if things go to plan, the top two seeds would arrive in the final, where last year Wozniacki had her initiation into playing in a Grand Slam decider, and it’s an experience that should serve her well.
At that point, however, Wozniacki will have played almost a month of solid competitive tennis, as she has this week backed up her Montreal title with what has so far been a run to the semi-finals of the Pilot Pen Tennis at Yale in New Haven.
It’s a run that has showcased Wozniacki’s talent from the baseline and composure as she dealt with the extended rain delays in Canada better than either of her opponents at the start of the week. Certainly, she’s got the fight to go all the way – anyone who watched her writhe in pain as she cramped on the court at last year’s season ending Doha Tour Championships before going on to win the round-robin match against Zvonareva would know that.
But while competing may be more fun than practising for Wozniacki, perhaps the biggest question mark hanging over her US Open chances is whether she’ll pay the price for success in her unrelenting schedule in the lead-up to the US Open somewhere in the midst of the action in Flushing Meadows.
Will a difficult draw coming off that packed schedule make winning a maiden Grand Slam title just that bit too tough for one of tennis’ brightest young stars in New York?
We’ll find out soon enough.
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