TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships 2011: Caroline Wozniacki – Part One
41st edition of this most prestigious event after the four Grand Slams, TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships, took place on the outdoor hard courts from 25thOctober to 30th October in Istanbul Turkey. Contested by top eight players of the season, WTA Championships with the prize money of US$4,900,000, consist of the highest Prize money after Grand Slams.
The fifth most prestigious event on the women’s tour after Grand Slams, WTA Championships is annually held at the year end after all WTA tour events ends. The Elite are divided into two round robin groups:
The Red Group consisted: world number one, Dane Caroline Wozniacki; world number three, Czech Petra Kvitova; world number six, Russian Vera Zvonareva and world number eight, Pole Agnieszka Radwanska.
First one in the lime light is the Danish number one Caroline Wozniacki who stayed number one for almost whole year. She did fall to world number two to Belgian Kim Clijsters but the Dane capitalised on the injuries Clijsters faced and snatched her rank back.
It is the Dane’s third appearance at the WTA Championships with a 5-4 record. Her best performance was being a runner-up in the 2010 final before losing to Clijsters.
The excited Wozniacki said about the draw, "It's a tough group, but both groups are tough. It's all great players. I'm going in there just hoping to play my best tennis and we'll see what happens."
Despite failing to triumph a Grand Slam, she displayed top notch performance and shelved six WTA career titles.
Wozniacki made an exceptional start of the season as she cruised into the semi-finals after triumphing over some big names including Italian Francesca Schiavone. However, she lost to ninth seeded Chinese Li Na in the final four. However, she went on an eight match run including her maiden title of the season at Dubai. Her streak discontinued after losing to second seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva in the final at the Doha WTA Premier event.
21-year-old re-created her magic in the Indian Wells WTA Premier event where she flashed past many seeded players without losing a set. She trashed a former world number one Maria Sharapova, French Marion Bartoli and Belarusian Victoria Azarenka on route to her second title of the season.
Her streak faced another bump in the third round of the Miami Premier event but she lifted her game again on the clay season. Wozniacki shelved a third title at Charleston WTA Premier event where she crushed all opponents in straight sets except Yanina Wickmayer whom she rallied past in a three setter match.
The Monaco resident’s amazing clay run continued to impress everyone as she made a title round appearance at Stuttgart and won her fourth WTA title at Brussels after downing Shuai Peng in the final. However, she exited to twenty-eighth seeded Slovak Daniela Hantuchova from the third round at Roland Garros, second of the four Grand Slam event of the season.
Coming from the French Open, Wozniacki raised her level of Game again and triumph her fifth title at Copenhagen. She then confidently entered Wimbledon, the third Grand Slam, and made a fourth round showing before falling to twenty-fourth seeded Slovak Dominika Cibulkova.
The Dane lost her momentum afterwards but re-kindled her spark again at New Haven to lift her sixth title of the season. Her spark stayed lit for the final Grand Slam, US Open where she made a semi-final berth before losing to a former world number one Serena Williams.
She lost her opening set at Istanbul but quickly bounced back to overpower eight seeded Pole Agnieszka Radwanska in the first round robin match. However, the Dane could not maintain her form and lost to sixth seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva in her second match. Wozniacki then crashed out to third seed Czech Petra Kvitova in the third round robin match.
Despite this result, she secured her number one rank since second seeded Maria Sharapova pulled out after two defeats in this championship.
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