The rise of Caroline Wozniacki

Caroline Wozniacki is an enigma. She is one of two Danes in the top 500 of the WTA rankings – the other has a current rank that is 476 places lower than her. She is the youngest player in the top 10 by a longshot – her closest competitor by age is Jelena Jankovic who in tennis years is practically middle aged at 25. And this Monday, she will be the 20th woman and first Dane to ascend to the top of women’s tennis, the 3rd to do so without ever winning one of the four grand slams.

Born in Odense, Denmark to Polish immigrants, Wozniacki took up tennis at a young age, eventually winning matches against her family members who were sports enthusiasts (Her father played professional soccer in both Poland and Denmark while her mother was on the Polish national volleyball team). In 2004 she won the Osaka Mayor’s Cup at the age of 14. 2 years later she would clinch the Wimbledon Junior’s Title. She turned professional in 2005 and her steady rise caught the eye of fashion designer Stella McCartney. Last year, she was named as the global face of Adidas’ Stella McCartney tennis line.

It is ironic that the woman she replaced is 13 time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams, because in many aspects she is the Anti-Serena. On the court, Wozniacki prefers to frustrate her opponents with her formidable defence, and then wear them down (a style of play some tennis fans mockingly call “pushing”). Rather than blast winners from the baseline, she often wins points by forcing her opponents to make errors. Her detractors will decry the fact that Wozniacki has not won a grand slam title, while Serena who is nearly a decade older has swooped to 2 major victories this year. But rankings measure success over 365 days and grand slams do not tell the whole story. It is difficult to argue with the fact that Wozniacki has had a dominant year. She has won 5 singles titles this year – more than any other competitor and amassed a win loss record of 54-15. Serena on the other hand has played few tournaments this year and has battled with a freak foot injury she sustained at a Munich restaurant in July. As a result, she hasn’t set foot on a competitive court since Wimbledon. In short, the rankings are not just about majors, its about consistency.

For Wozniacki, she has little time to bask in the success of her number one ranking. Her next goal is to prove her critics wrong by winning a grand slam. For fans of women’s tennis it will be interesting to see what Wozniacki can achieve in the future, as she is still only 20 years old. Nevertheless, this could mark the breakthrough of a younger generation of tennis players who up till now have been overshadowed by the alternating dominance of the old guard of Williams sisters, Belgians and Russians. In September during the Pilot Pen Tournament, she expressed her desire to apply to Yale University “to study business or management”. There’s no question that Wozniacki is one of the brightest young stars in women’s tennis. But previous slamless number ones (Jankovic, Safina) have since struggled to maintain their form. Another former number one Ana Ivanovic saw her game collapse spectacularly after her 2008 French Open win. Will Wozniacki be here to stay?