With so many top flight players on the shelf for the remainder of the 2010 season, a dark cloud has been hovering over women’s tennis recently, but on Thursday at the China Open, the skies cleared for the crowning of a new World No.1, appropriately nicknamed “Sunshine”, Caroline Wozniacki.
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After capturing her 11th career title in Tokyo last week, the 20-year-old Dane needed to reach the quarter-finals in Beijing to become the 20th player in Tour history and seventh youngest to hold the no. 1 ranking. She did just that, dethroning Serena Williams with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Petra Kvitova.
While many are quick to argue that Wozniacki doesn’t have the power game or a Grand Slam title to justify her new status, the numbers do. She boasts a 25-2 record since Wimbledon, winning four titles in that span including a triumph at the Rogers Cup presented by National Bank in Montreal. Wozniacki’s win over Kvitova was her Tour leading 56th of the season compared to only 15 losses at a time when most of the top women don’t even come close to playing 56 matches in a year. She is also the first player since Justine Henin in 2007 to win five titles in a season.
Wozniacki may not possess the power in her 5’10” frame to hit her opponents off the court like Serena and Venus can, but tennis isn’t just about striking winners, winning matches is what makes a player great and no one does that more in the women’s game than Wozniacki. Her domination is a result of playing by the most basic rule in tennis: keep the ball inside the lines. She excels where others fail in that regard and while it’s not the prettiest approach to the sport, it’s effective and apparently a lost art in today’s era of ‘big babe’ tennis.
