Before the Wimbledon, Wozniacki won the exhibition tournament Liverpool International Tennis Tournament, beating Ashley Harkleroad in the finals.[7]
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 Jie Zheng.
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;[8] 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.[9]
In her last junior tournament, the Osaka Mayor's Cup, she won both the girls' singles and doubles.[10]
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,[11] but five days before the event, Williams canceled because of an injury.[12] 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 30 November, Wozniacki was named ambassador for Danish Junior Tennis by the Culture Minister of Denmark at the time, Brian Mikkelsen.
[edit] 2007
In January, she was invited by Hong Kong Tennis Patrons' Association to play in the exhibition tournament Watsons Water Champions Challenge.
On 4 February, she won an $75,000 ITF singles title in Ortisei, Italy, beating the Italian player Alberta Brianti 4–6, 7–5, 6–3. On 4 March, she won the $75,000 ITF tournament in Las Vegas, beating top-seed Akiko Morigami in the final 6–3, 6–2.
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 6–1, 6–3. The two faced each other again on 27 April in Copenhagen for an exhibition match, where Wozniacki again lost 7–6(7), 3–6, 6–2.
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. Wozniacki eventually lost to Venus Williams 6–3, 7–5.
caroline wozniacki
caroline wozniacki
caroline wozniacki
caroline wozniacki
2009
Wozniacki reached 8 finals winning 3 in 2009
In her first tournament of the year at the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand, she lost in the quarterfinals to Russian Elena Vesnina 6–3, 0–6, 6–3. She then reached the quarter-finals of the Medibank International in Sydney where she lost to World No. 2 Serena Williams 6–7(5), 6–3, 7–6(3), despite having three match points when serving for the match at 6–5 in the third set. Seeded 11th at the Australian Open, Wozniacki advanced to the third round where she lost to Australian wild card Jelena Dokić 3–6, 6–1, 6–2.
Wozniacki reached the quarterfinals of the Pattaya Women's Open in Thailand but lost to 8th seeded Magdaléna Rybáriková 6–4, 6–1. Seeded first at the Cellular South Cup in Memphis, Tennessee, Wozniacki advanced to the final but lost to the Belarusian teenager Victoria Azarenka 6–1, 6–3. Afterward, Wozniacki and Azarenka partnered to win the doubles title, beating Michaëlla Krajicek and Yuliana Fedak 6–1, 7–6(2) in the final.
Wozniacki then took part in the first two Premier Mandatory tournaments of the year in North America. At the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, Wozniacki lost in the quarterfinals to eventual champion Vera Zvonareva 6–4, 6–2. At the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Wozniacki scored her first wins over 18th seeded Patty Schnyder and the 4th seed Elena Dementieva in the third and fourth rounds respectively. She lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova 6–4, 6–7(5), 6–1 in the quarter-finals.
Wozniacki won her first title of the year on the green clay of the MPS Group Championships in Ponte Vedra Beach. After surviving a tough first round encounter against Samantha Stosur, she then handily dispensed of Virginie Razzano and Daniela Hantuchová in straight sets to reach the semifinals. There she survived four match points against her to defeat Elena Vesnina 2–6, 6–3, 7–6(5). She then defeated Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak (no relation) in the final 6–1, 6–2. Seeded fifth on the green clay at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, she defeated top seed Elena Dementieva 6–4, 5–7, 7–5 in the semifinals before losing 6–2, 6–4 to Sabine Lisicki in the final.
Wozniacki then suffered early exits in her next two tournaments, losing to Marion Bartoli 7–6(6), 6–4 in the second round at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart and losing in the third round of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome to Victoria Azarenka 6–2, 6–2. Wozniacki advanced to the final of the inaugural Premier Mandatory Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open, where she lost to World No. 1 Dinara Safina 6–2, 6–4. This was her best result to-date. Seeded 10th at the French Open in Paris, France, Wozniacki lost to Sorana Cîrstea of Romania, 7–6(3) 7–5. Cîrstea and Wozniacki lost in the first round of the doubles tournament to Maria Kirilenko and Flavia Pennetta, 6–4, 6–4.
During the grass court season, Wozniacki won her second title of the year at the AEGON International in Eastbourne. She advanced to the semifinals with defeats over Alisa Kleybanova, Samantha Stosur, and Ekaterina Makarova. There she faced near-namesake Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada, recovering from a set down to win 2–6, 6–4, 6–4. She beat Virginie Razzano in the final 7–6, 7–5.[15]
Wozniacki reached her first Grand Slam final at the US Open
Wozniacki was seeded 9th in Wimbledon, where she defeated the #20 seed Anabel Medina Garrigues 6–2, 6–2 before falling to Sabine Lisicki in the fourth round, 6–4, 6–4.
On her 19th birthday she lost in the final of the Swedish Open 7–5, 6–4 to María José Martínez Sánchez of Spain. In her first hard-court tournament in preparation for the US Open and after receiving a bye in the first round of the LA Women's Tennis Championships, she lost in the second round to Sorana Cîrstea 1–6, 6–4, 7–6(5). At the Cincinnati Masters, Wozniacki advanced to the quarterfinals, falling to Elena Dementieva 6–2, 6–1. In the Toronto she lost in the second round to Zheng Jie 7–5, 6–3. She then went on to defend her title at the Pilot Pen Tennis in New Haven. In the first round she had her first ever double bagel win, 6–0, 6–0 over Edina Gallovits in 41 minutes. In the final of the tournament she beat Russian challenger Elena Vesnina 6–2, 6–4 to win her third title of the season.
Wozniacki was the 9th seed at the US Open. She became the first Danish woman to reach a Grand Slam final, where she was defeated 7–5, 6–3 by unseeded Belgian Kim Clijsters who had recently returned to the WTA Tour after retiring in 2007. Wozniacki's runner-up showing allowed her to reach a career-high ranking of No. 6, which shortly after improved to No. 5 despite not playing. By reaching the US Open final in September, she qualified for the WTA Tour Championships in Doha in October for the first time in her career.
In her first match since the US Open, she retired because of a viral illness down 0–5 in the first set against Aleksandra Wozniak in the second round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open, after having received a bye in the first round. She then lost to María José Martínez Sánchez in the first round of the China Open 6–7(5), 7–6(2), 6–0.
She then lost 6–0, 4–6, 6–4 to Samantha Stosur in the semifinals of the HP Open in Osaka. The following week in BGL Luxembourg Open, she retired with a hamstring injury in the first round when while leading 7–5, 5–0 over Anne Kremer, which aroused controversy because of the scoreline.[16]
At the year-ending Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha, Wozniacki qualified for the semifinals. Struggling with a stomach strain and a left thigh injury, Wozniacki lost to World No. 1 Serena Williams in the semifinals, retiring while trailing 6–4, 0–1.[17]
caroline wozniacki
2010
Wozniacki started the 2010 season playing at an exhibition tournament in Hong Kong, where she lost two singles matches for Team Europe but won two mixed doubles matches with Stefan Edberg. 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, despite dropping sets to three players en route. She was defeated by former World No. 1 Jelena Janković 6–2, 6–4 in the final. With the result, she achieved a new career-high ranking of World No. 2.[18] At the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Wozniacki lost in the quarterfinals to the newly-returned Justine Henin 6–7(5), 6–3, 6–4.
Her next tournament was the Ponte Vedra Beach, where she defeated Olga Govortsova 6–2, 7–5 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. The injury was cited as serious.[19][20]
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.[21] Despite her poor clay court season, 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. There, it took Wozniacki almost three hours to defeat Flavia Pennetta of Italy 7–6(5), (4)6–7, 6–2. In the quarterfinals she lost to eventual champion Francesca Schiavone 6–3, 6–2. 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. She defeated Tathiana Garbin, Chang Kai-chen and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova en route to the fourth round, where she was crushed by Petra Kvitová 6–2, 6–0.
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 6–4, 6–1. 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 Kuznetova 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 6–3, 3–6, 6–3 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 cruised to the fourth round with the loss of just 3 games. There she defeated the 2006 US Open champion Maria Sharapova 6–3, 6–4. She then defeated unseeded Dominika Cibulková 6–2, 7–5 in the quarterfinals but was upset by Vera Zvonareva in the semifinals by a score of 6–4, 6–3. 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.[22]
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 1–6, 6–2, 6–3 in the final to win her fifth title of the year.
She then entered the China Open in Beijing, where after a first round bye, she defeated Sara Errani 6–4, 6–2. In the third round, Wozniacki faced Petra Kvitová, who had routed her at Wimbledon. Wozniacki avenged that loss and won the match 6–3, 6–2, ensuring 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.[23] In the quarterfinals, she defeated resurgent former World No. 1 Ana Ivanović 7–6(1), 6–4. This was Wozniacki's first win over the Serbian.[24] She then defeated Shahar Pe'er in the semifinal by a score of 7–5, 6–2 and Vera Zvonareva 6–3, 3–6, 6–3 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 6–1, 6–1 in her first round robin game, but lost 6–4, 6–3 to Stosur in the second. She won her last round-robin match in the group against Schiavone 3–6, 6–1, 6–1, securing the year-end World No. 1 rank and a place in the semifinals against the winner of the other group, Vera Zvonareva. Wozniacki won that match 7–5, 6–0. In the final she lost 3–6, 7–5, 3–6 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.
[edit] 2011
During the offseason, Wozniacki switched from Babolat to Yonex as her racket manufacturer of choice.[25] 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.[26] 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.[27] 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.
Wozniacki was the number one seed at the Australian Open, being in that position at a major for the first time in her career.[28] In the first two rounds she defeated Gisela Dulko and Vania King in straight sets, 6–3, 6–4 and 6–1, 6–0. She defeated Dominika Cibulková, who had upset Wozniacki the week before, 6–4, 6–3 in the third round. She defeated Anastasija Sevastova in the fourth round, 6–3, 6–4. In the quarterfinals, she faced a tenacious opponent in Francesca Schiavone, eventually prevailing 3–6, 6–3, 6–3. She then lost to Li Na 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 she quickly regained the world No. 1 title. 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.[29] She defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final 6–1, 6–3 to take her 13th career title and first of the year.
In the Doha she received a bye to the second round and easily reached the final after defeating Nadia Petrova, Flavia Pennetta and Marion Bartoli in straight sets. She will face Vera Zvonareva in the final.
