Caroline Wozniacki
Caroline Wozniacki (born 11 July 1990) is a Danish professional tennis player. She is the current World No. 1 on the WTA Tour. As of 18 July 2011, she has held this position for 40 weeks. She is the first Danish tennis player to hold the top ranking position and 20th overall.
Since her WTA debut in 2005, she has improved her year-end ranking each year until finishing on top in 2010. She has won 17 WTA singles titles as of June 2011, three in 2008, three in 2009, six in 2010 (the most since Justine Henin's ten in 2007), and five in 2011. She was runner-up at the 2009 US Open and the 2010 WTA Tour Championships in Doha to Kim Clijsters. She won the 2006 Wimbledon Girls' Singles, but has yet to win a Women's Grand Slam title. She also holds two WTA titles in doubles.
Caroline Wozniacki Interviews Novak Djokovic
Caroline Wozniacki vs Virginie Razzano Wimbledon 2011 Highlights HQ
Caroline Wozniacki cramping and full body twitch (Doha 2009)
Caroline Wozniacki- I don't really care what people think or say or do
Early life
Wozniacki is the daughter of Polish immigrants, Piotr and Anna Wozniacki. Her mother played on the Polish women's national volleyball team,[5] and her father played professional football. The couple moved to Denmark when Piotr signed for the Danish football club Boldklubben 1909.[4][6] Wozniacki's older brother Patrik is a professional footballer for Hvidovre IF in Denmark.[5]
Playing style
Wozniacki's playing style centers "around the defensive aspects of tennis with her anticipation, movement, agility, footwork and defence all first-rate and key parts of her game."[7] Her two-handed backhand is one of the best in the game due to her ability to turn defense into offense. Her defensive playing style has her contemporaries label her a counter-puncher.
Career
2005
Wozniacki won several junior tournaments in 2005, including the Orange Bowl tennis championship.[8] She made her debut on the WTA Tour at Cincinnati's Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open on 19 July 2005, losing to the top-seeded and eventual champion Patty Schnyder in the first round. In the Nordea Nordic Light Open, her other WTA tournament of the year, she lost to Martina Suchá in the first round.
2006
In 2006, she was the top seed at the Australian Open (junior girls' singles), but lost the final to eighth-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia. She was seeded second with partner Anna Tatishvili in the doubles tournament, but the pair was knocked out in the semifinals by the French-Italian pair of Alizé Cornet and Corinna Dentoni, who were seeded eighth.
In February at the Memphis, she reached her first WTA Tour quarterfinal, beating Kristina Brandi and Ashley Harkleroad before losing to third-seeded Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden.
Wozniacki during the Junior Wimbledon final
Before the Wimbledon, Wozniacki won the exhibition tournament Liverpool International Tennis Tournament, beating Ashley Harkleroad in the finals.[9]
Later that year, she was given a wild card to main draw qualifying of the Wimbledon, where she was beaten in the first round by Miho Saeki. However, Wozniacki went on to win the girls' singles tournament, beating Slovak Magdaléna Rybáriková in the finals.
In August, she reached another WTA Tour quarterfinal, this time at the Nordea Nordic Light Open in Stockholm. She defeated top 100 players Iveta Benešová and Eleni Daniilidou before falling to eventual champion and third-seeded Zheng Jie.
Wozniacki was seeded second in Girls' Singles in the year's last major tournament. In the first round she won the first set against Russian Alexandra Panova, but was disqualified in the second set for verbally abusing an umpire. Wozniacki was said to have used an expletive in referring to a linesman who made a disputed call;[10] however, on her blog, she claimed to say "take your sunglasses of [sic]" and was mistaken for talking to the linesman, when she in fact was criticizing herself after the next point.[11]
In her last junior tournament, the Osaka Mayor's Cup, she won both the girls' singles and doubles.[12]
Her first title on the senior tour came shortly after on 29 October, when she won the $25,000 ITF-tournament in Istanbul by beating Tatjana Malek in the final.
Wozniacki was set to face Venus Williams on 27 November in an exhibition match in Copenhagen,[13] but five days before the event, Williams canceled because of an injury.[14] The two did, however, face each other in the Memphis WTA Tier III event on 20 February. Williams beat Wozniacki, ending the nine-match winning streak Wozniacki had at the time.
On 29 November, Wozniacki was named ambassador for Danish Junior Tennis by the Culture Minister of Denmark at the time, Brian Mikkelsen.[15]
2007
On 4 February, she won an $75,000 ITF singles title in Ortisei, Italy, beating the Italian player Alberta Brianti.[16] On 4 March, she won the $75,000 ITF tournament in Las Vegas, beating top-seed Akiko Morigami in the final.
She obtained a wild card for the Pacific Life Open main draw and made her Tier I debut there. She was knocked out in the second round by Martina Hingis.
She then made the semifinals of the AIG Open in Tokyo in October, her first career WTA Tour semifinal, and as a result became the first Danish woman to reach a WTA semifinal since Tine Scheuer-Larsen at Bregenz in 1986. She was defeated by Venus Williams in straight sets.
2008
At 2008 US Open
At the Australian Open, Wozniacki defeated Gisela Dulko and 21st seed Alona Bondarenko on her way to the Round of 16, where she lost to the eventual finalist and fourth-seeded Ana Ivanović.
At the French Open, she was seeded thirtieth, making this the first Grand Slam tournament in which Wozniacki was seeded. She again lost in the third round to the eventual champion and World No. 2 Ana Ivanović.
At Wimbledon, she reached the third round, but lost to second-seeded Jelena Janković.[17]
Wozniacki won her first-ever WTA Tour title at the Nordic Light Open in Stockholm without dropping a set, defeating no. 5 seed Anabel Medina Garrigues in the quarterfinals, top seed and World No. 10, Agnieszka Radwańska in the semifinals, and Vera Dushevina in the final.
At the Summer Olympics in Beijing, she beat World No. 12 Daniela Hantuchová in the second round before falling to the eventual gold-medalist Elena Dementieva. Wozniacki then won her second WTA Tour title at the Pilot Pen Tennis in New Haven, defeating four seeded players in Dominika Cibulková, Marion Bartoli and Alizé Cornet en route to the final, where she defeated World No. 11 Anna Chakvetadze.
Wozniacki was the 21st seed at the US Open. She defeated World No. 14 Victoria Azarenka in the third round but lost to second-seeded and eventual runner-up Jelena Janković in the fourth round.
At the China Open, she lost her opening match to Anabel Medina Garrigues. However, she teamed up with Medina Garrigues to clinch the doubles title, defeating the Chinese duo of Han Xinyun and Xu Yi-Fan. It was Wozniacki's first WTA doubles title. At the Tier III AIG Japan Open Tennis Championships, she was the top seed for the first time on the WTA Tour, and she won her third career title, defeating Kaia Kanepi of Estonia in the final.
Wozniacki then took part in an ITF tournament in her hometown Odense. She won the tournament, beating World No. 64 Sofia Arvidsson in the final.
Her final win–loss record for the year (ITF matches included, exhibition matches not included) was 58–20 in singles and 8–9 in doubles. She ended the year ranked 12th in singles and 79th in doubles. She finished thirteenth in the race for the Sony Ericsson Championships. She also won the WTA Newcomer of the Year award for 2008.[18]
2009
Wozniacki reached 8 finals winning 3 in 2009
Wozniacki's started the season in Auckland where she lost to Elena Vesnina in the quarterfinals. She also reached the quarterfinals in Sydney, this time losing to World No. 2 Serena Williams 6–7(5), 6–3, 7–6(3) after having three match points. Seeded 11th at the Australian Open, Wozniacki lost in the third round to Australian wild card Jelena Dokić.
In Pattaya, Wozniacki lost to Magdaléna Rybáriková in the quarterfinals. Seeded first at the Cellular South Cup in Memphis, Tennessee, Wozniacki advanced to the final but lost to Victoria Azarenka. Afterwards they partnered in the doubles final to defeat Michaëlla Krajicek and Yuliana Fedak.
Wozniacki then took part in the first two Premier Mandatory tournaments of the year. At Indian Wells she lost in the quarterfinals to eventual champion Vera Zvonareva. In Miami she scored her first win over Elena Dementieva before losing to another Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals.
Wozniacki won her first title of the year at the MPS Group Championships on green clay in Ponte Vedra Beach where she defeated Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak (no relation). In Charleston she defeated top seed Elena Dementieva in the semifinals before losing the final to Sabine Lisicki.
Wozniacki suffered early exits in her next two tournaments, losing to Marion Bartoli in the second round in Stuttgart, and to Victoria Azarenka in the third round in Rome. She reached the final of the inaugural Premier Mandatory Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open, where she lost to World No. 1 Dinara Safina. This was Wozniacki's only match against a reigning No. 1 before she herself became No. 1 in October 2010. Seeded 10th at the French Open, Wozniacki lost to Sorana Cîrstea in the third round. They partnered in doubles but lost in the first round.
Wozniacki won her second 2009 title on the grass of Eastbourne. In the final she defeated Virginie Razzano.[19] Wozniacki was seeded 9th in Wimbledon where she lost to Sabine Lisicki in the fourth round.
Wozniacki reached her first Grand Slam final at the US Open
On her 19th birthday she lost the final of the Swedish Open to María José Martínez Sánchez. On hard-court at the LA Women's Tennis Championships, she lost in the second round to Sorana Cîrstea. At the Cincinnati Masters, she reached the quarterfinals before falling to Elena Dementieva. In Toronto she lost early in the second round to Zheng Jie, but she then went on to defend her title at the Pilot Pen Tennis in New Haven without losing a set. In the first round she had her first double bagel win as a professional, 6–0, 6–0 over Edina Gallovits in 41 minutes. In the final she beat Elena Vesnina for her third title of the season.
Wozniacki was the 9th seed at the US Open. She made her best result to date by becoming the first Danish woman to reach a Grand Slam final. There she was defeated by Kim Clijsters who had recently made a comeback after retiring in 2007.
In the second round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open she retired because of a viral illness down 0–5 against Aleksandra Wozniak. She then lost to María José Martínez Sánchez in the first round of the China Open, and to Samantha Stosur in the semifinals in Osaka. The following week in Luxembourg, she retired with a hamstring injury in the first round while leading 7–5, 5–0 over Anne Kremer. This aroused controversy because of the scoreline.[20]
Wozniacki's 2009 results qualified her for the year-ending Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha for the first time. She won two of three group matches and advanced to the semifinals. There she struggled with a stomach strain and a left thigh injury against World No. 1 Serena Williams, and retired while trailing 6–4, 0–1.[21]
2010
In her first WTA tournament of the year, Wozniacki suffered an opening round loss to Li Na of China in the Sydney. She was seeded 4th at the Australian Open, her first top-eight seed in a Grand Slam. She again fell to Li, this time in the fourth round, in straight sets. Despite her 4th round exit, Wozniacki achieved a career-high ranking of No.3.
As the 2nd seed at Indian Wells, Wozniacki reached the final before losing to former World No. 1 Jelena Janković. With this result, she achieved a new career-high ranking of World No. 2.[22] At the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Wozniacki lost in the quarterfinals to the newly-returned Justine Henin.
Her next tournament was the Ponte Vedra Beach, where she defeated Olga Govortsova in the final. Wozniacki then competed at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston. She advanced to the semifinals, where she met Vera Zvonareva. Wozniacki was forced to retire down 2–5 after she rolled her ankle while chasing down a short ball.[23][24]
Despite her ongoing ankle injury, she continued to compete in tournaments through the clay-court season, suffering early losses in Stuttgart, Rome and the Madrid. She then reached the quarterfinals in Warsaw, but retired there after losing the first set.[25]
Wozniacki was seeded 3rd at the French Open. She posted her best result at Roland Garros by advancing to the fourth round without dropping a set. After defeating Flavia Pennetta in the Round of 16 in three sets, she lost to eventual champion Francesca Schiavone in the quarterfinals. Wozniacki partnered with Daniela Hantuchová in doubles, but they withdrew before their second round match against the Williams sisters because to a right shoulder injury to Hantuchová.
As the defending champion, Wozniacki lost early at the AEGON International, her first grass-court tournament of the year, to Aravane Rezaï. Wozniacki was seeded 3rd at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, where she defeated Tathiana Garbin, Chang Kai-chen and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova en route to the fourth round, where she was defeated by Petra Kvitová.
Wozniacki was the number 1 seed at the inaugural 2010 e-Boks Danish Open. It was the first Danish WTA tournament, created largely out of Wozniacki's popularity in Denmark. She reached the final and she defeated Klára Zakopalová to win her second title of the year.
In Cincinnati, she lost in the third round to Marion Bartoli. As the number 2 seed of Montreal, Wozniacki was forced to wait two days to play her semifinal match with Svetlana Kuznetsova because of heavy rain. She defeated both Kuznetsova and Vera Zvonareva on the same day for her third singles title of the year. As the top seed of New Haven, Wozniacki defeated Nadia Petrova in the final for her third consecutive title there. By virtue of this, she also won the 2010 US Open Series.
Wozniacki in the 2010 US Open
Wozniacki was the top seed at the US Open due to the withdrawal of World No. 1 Serena Williams. She advanced to the semifinals before being upset by Vera Zvonareva. With her semifinal appearance, Wozniacki became only one of two women (the other being Venus Williams) to have reached at least the fourth round of all 4 Grand Slam events in 2010.[26]
Wozniacki's first tournament during the Asian hard-court season was the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo. She won back-to-back three setters against Victoria Azarenka and Elena Dementieva, the latter of whom she beat in the final to win her fifth title of the year.
She then entered the China Open in Beijing. In the third round, Wozniacki faced Petra Kvitová, who had routed her at Wimbledon. Wozniacki avenged that loss which ensured that she would replace Serena Williams as the new World No. 1 after the tournament. She was the fifth player to reach the number 1 position without having won a Grand Slam tournament. She also became the first Danish, man or woman, to reach the top ranking.[27] Wozniacki ultimately won the tournament, defeating Vera Zvonareva in the final to win her sixth title of the year and twelfth overall.
At the year-end Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha, Wozniacki was drawn in a group with Francesca Schiavone, Samantha Stosur and Elena Dementieva. She defeated Dementieva in her first round robin game, but lost to Stosur in the second. She won her last round-robin match in the group against Schiavone, securing the year-end World No. 1 rank and a place in the semifinals against the winner of the other group, Vera Zvonareva. Wozniacki defeated her, but then lost . in the final in three sets to Kim Clijsters. Wozniacki ended the season with six WTA singles titles, the most on the tour. Clijsters won five and no other player won more than two.
2011
During the offseason, Wozniacki switched her racquet make from Babolat to Yonex.[28] Wozniacki began her 2011 season with an exhibition match in Thailand against Kim Clijsters. She lost 3–6, 6–4, 10–12 after a super tie-break.[29] Wozniacki then played another exhibition, the team event Hong Kong Tennis Classic where she represented and was Captain of Team Europe. She won two matches against Team Asia Pacific before getting crushed 6–1, 6–0 by world no. 2 Vera Zvonareva in the final against Team Russia.[30] Her first WTA tournament was the Medibank International Sydney. She received a bye to the second round where she lost 6–3, 6–3 to Dominika Cibulková.
The Australian Open was Wozniacki's first major as World No. 1.[31] She lost to Li Na, who had defeated her the previous year, in the semifinals 6–3, 5–7, 3–6, after failing to convert a match point when trying to serve out the match at 5–4 in the second set.
Wozniacki dropped to No. 2 behind Kim Clijsters during the week of 14 February, but regained the top spot the following week. She received a bye to the second round in Dubai where, in the quarterfinals, she beat Shahar Pe'er 6–2, 6–4 to ensure her No. 1 position in the next rankings update.[32] She went on to defeat Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final 6–1, 6–3 to take her 13th career singles title and first of the year.
In Doha she received a bye to the second round and reached the final after defeating Nadia Petrova, Flavia Pennetta and Marion Bartoli in straight sets. She lost to Vera Zvonareva in the final 4–6, 4–6.
In the first Premier Mandatory event of the year, the Indian Wells, Wozniacki made it to the final where she met Marion Bartoli and won 6–1, 2–6, 6–3 for her 14th singles title.
After a first-round bye at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Florida, Wozniacki lost in the fourth round to 21st seed Andrea Petkovic 7–5, 3–6, 6–3.
In the Family Circle Cup, Wozniacki made it to the final, where she defeated unseeded Elena Vesnina 6–2, 6–3 to take her third title of the year, fifteenth of her career.
In Stuttgart Wozniacki made it to her fifth final of the year, where she lost to Julia Görges in straight sets.
In Madrid Wozniacki lost to Görges again, this time in the third round. In Rome, she lost to eventual champion Maria Sharapova in the semifinal round, with a 7–5, 6–3 defeat.
At the Brussels Open, Wozniacki reached the semifinals, where she defeated the 3rd seed and reigning French Open champion, Francesca Schiavone 6–4, 4–6, 6–3.[33] In the final – Wozniacki's 6th of the year – she defeated the 8th seed Peng Shuai 2–6, 6–3, 6–3 to win her first red clay title after having won three on the faster green clay.[34]
Wozniacki was the top seed at the French Open, but was defeated in the third round by 28th seed Daniela Hantuchová, 6–1, 6–3.[35]
Wozniacki's next tournament was the e-Boks Sony Ericsson Open in her native Denmark. In the final, she defeated 4th seed Lucie Šafářová 6–1, 6–4 taking her fifth title of the year.[36] At Wimbledon she had straight-set wins until the fourth round but then lost 6–1, 6–7(5), 5–7 to 24th seed Dominika Cibulková.[37]
Wozniacki temporarily returned to the red clay for the Swedish Open in Båstad. She retired due to a shoulder injury in the second round.
Personal life
Wozniacki's best friend is her fellow Danish tennis player Malou Ejdesgaard, her doubles partner in some WTA tournaments.[38] They are trying to gain entry to the 2012 Summer Olympics in doubles.[39]
When asked in 2008 by Teen Vogue magazine what sports beside tennis she liked to play, Wozniacki said "I like handball, soccer, swimming, playing the piano, and all kinds of different things."[40]
On 20 December 2010, she signed a three-year deal to endorse Turkish Airlines' business class service.[41][42]
Wozniacki is a Liverpool F.C. supporter. She wore a Liverpool shirt signed by footballer Steven Gerrard on court in the 2011 Qatar Ladies Open.[43]
Career statistics
Main article: Caroline Wozniacki career statistics
Grand Slam finals
Singles: 1 (0–1)
Outcome Year Championship Surface Opponent in the final Score in the final
Runner-up 2009 US Open Hard Kim Clijsters 7–5, 6–3
Singles performance timeline
Tournament 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Career SR Career W–L
Grand Slam Tournaments
Australian Open A A A 4R 3R 4R SF 0 / 4 13–4
French Open A A 1R 3R 3R QF 3R 0 / 5 10–5
Wimbledon A LQ 2R 3R 4R 4R 4R 0 / 5 12–5
US Open A A 2R 4R F SF 0 / 4 15–4
Win–Loss 0–0 0–0 2–3 10–4 13–4 15–4 10–3 0 / 18 50–18
Awards
2008
WTA Tour Most Impressive Newcomer of the Year
2010
ITF Player of the Year
Danish Sports Name of the Year
References from Wikipedia.com
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