All eyes were on Caroline Wozniacki as 2011 began in Melbourne. She was ranked No. 1 in the world; the question was, when was she going to back up that gaudy number with her first Grand Slam title?
This line of relentless questioning didn’t seem to bother Wozniacki as much as the media’s other contention about her: That she was boring. To prove everyone wrong, she began the Aussie Open by staging a mock press conference where she answered her own deliberately mundane questions. That got a few (slightly bewildered) laughs, but it was a trip to the interview room later in the week that really got people’s attention. Wozniacki announced that she had been scratched by a baby kangaroo in a Melbourne park and had been rushed to see a doctor. Later that day, though, she came back one more time to confess that the whole thing had been made up, and that a treadmill, rather than the kangaroo, had been the culprit.
It was the start of an eventful year for Wozniacki, at least off the court. While she never won her Slam, she did show up at a Novak Djokovic press conference at Wimbledon to ask him questions; she mimicked a cramping Rafael Nadal at the U.S. Open; and she wrapped up the season by stuffing her dress and imitating Serena Williams at an exhibition in Bratislava. By season’s end, Wozniacki had shown us she wasn’t boring. Too bad no one was convinced she belonged at No. 1.
—Steve Tignor
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