Messy, up and down, briefly brilliant, at times hard to make sense of, at other times totally predictable, and a dogfight throughout, the last match of the women’s season was a microcosm of the WTA year as a whole. Kim Clijsters, having not played at all since the U.S. Open, beat Caroline Wozniacki in three sets to win her third year-end championship. With the win, Clijsters continued the recent WTA trend of an elite player sitting on the sidelines for months at a time yet still pulling it together to win, or nearly win, a big event. Wozniacki’s performance was equally fitting. Weary from her long season and a lot of fall tennis, she nevertheless was steady enough to make her way to the final, survive a 1-4 second-set deficit against Clijsters, and then, when an important title was on the line, lack the firepower to claim it.
Clijsters finished 2010 the way she began it. In Brisbane in January, and again in Key Biscayne in April, she built early leads against Justine Henin, watched them vanish as quickly as they had appeared, and then bounced back to win both matches anyway. The same scenario unfolded in Doha. The first set was filled with long games, and Clijsters, rushing as always, committed plenty of rash errors. Like any cranky old fan, I like when the pros play quickly, but last night it seemed to me that Clijsters plays too fast. It’s hard to find a viewing rhythm with her. More important, her impatience crossed over to her game. As Pam Shriver pointed out on ESPN, Clijsters has a habit of going for shots—like, say, a backhand crosscourt winner from behind the baseline—that simply aren’t there. At its most extreme, Clijsters’ impatience can turn into something approaching a cold disdain for the match at hand. After blowing the second set, she lost the first game of the third. The next game went to 30-30. Wozniacki served and Clijsters blindly knocked a backhand down the line. She didn’t appear to care where the ball landed, but as it happened, it landed right on the line. She won the point, broke serve, lost the look of disdain, and went on to win the match.
Nevertheless, whatever her emotional ups and downs, Clijsters established herself as the superior ball-striker. She can do more with the return than Wozniacki, she can finish points with her inside-out forehand, she’s more comfortable dictating play, and she’s every bit as good on defense. All of which proved again that the WTA is ruled by a small group of elite athletes who, whatever their preparation, will always rise above the rest and rouse themselves in time to win the significant titles. But while Wozniacki “failed” to back her No. 1 seeding and ranking, her performance was still impressive. She stood toe to toe with Clijsters from the baseline for long stretches, and adjusted her game to her opponent. She had to go for more than normal, and she did it without going haywire with errors. Her backhand down the line, which she pulled the trigger on with more frequency than usual, is hardly the bland defensive shot we’ve been told to expect from Wozniacki. And when Clijsters got tight in the second, she recognized the opening and walked right through it. Wozniacki immediately became more aggressive, even taking over the net on a few key points, and when she got to 5-5 she sent a pointed fist-pump in her opponent's direction. Wozniacki saw an opportunity to take not just the edge in rallies, but the emotional edge as well, and she rode it to a second-set win. It was a savvy piece of competing.
If Wozniacki’s superb but Slamless season makes her a dubious No. 1 in some people’s eyes, there’s no doubt that she was a bright spot in a WTA year that can only be described as a disappointment. There were excellent matches and dramatic moments, but 2010 began with much higher expectations. The Belgians were back. Maria Sharapova was healthy. Serena and Venus were still going strong. The second tier, the Safinas and Jankovics of the world, were going to be put back in their place. And it started out exactly that way. Henin and Serena played a three-set Australian Open final that was worthy of the occasion. Then the injuries began to chip away. Clijsters missed the French, and Henin and Serena didn’t play a match after Wimbledon. By the fall, Sharapova was gone, and the WTA Championships looked pretty, well, second tier. Even more of a bummer is the fact that all of these injuries and illnesses came in the second year of the tour’s revamped roadmap schedule, the purpose of which had been to lessen the playing load for the Top 10, keep them healthier, and get them to face each other more often. As it was, this was the first time that Wozniacki and Clijsters, two Top 5 players, had met all year.
The season ended with WTA chief Stacy Allaster talking not about how to fix the injury issue, but about the need for players to “share” more about their injuries when they do occur. This comment was aimed at Serena Williams, of course, who played just six tournaments all season. The mysterious saga of her cut foot was frustrating because there was so little that could be done about it. Allaster is right, the lack of information left us in the dark about not only her health but also her motivation to play. Equally frustrating was the way so many women either blew off or couldn’t stay healthy for the fall. Even Clijsters, champion in Doha, didn’t seem all that excited about being a professional tennis player. She said after the final that she’ll probably hang up her racquets again in a couple of years. In general, she sounded like she already has one foot out the door. Part-time commitment is hard for a fan to rally around.
So we look for bright spots, or at least points of interest. Ana Ivanovic was certainly committed, and her brief rise from service-toss hell was an inspiring story. But today she announced that she was parting ways with Heinz Gunthardt, the coach who helped get her turned halfway around. Another mentor has come and gone, which, when the new year begins, will leave us wondering about Ivanovic’s future again. Vera Zvonareva's success was more sustained. She reached two major finals and made great mental strides along the way. Sam Stosur gave us a vicious kick serve and a battering-ram forehand, and she finished on a relatively high note. It’s too bad her season will be defined by her upset defeat in the French final, in a tournament where she had beaten both Serena and Justine. On the bright side, Stosur’s loss was out gain. It set the stage for the most indelible moment of the tennis season on either tour, Francesca Schiavone’s joyous roll in the Paris clay. La Leonessa showed, in the midst of a season of general ambivalence, that moments are there to be seized—that they can be seized.
But even if Serena owned the Slams, even if Clijsters should be crowned Player of the Year, even if Stosur was the most improved, and even if the most memorable performance belongs to Schiavone, it was Wozniacki who I enjoyed watching most in 2010. Will she be the next Kim Clijsters, a Slam-less No. 1 who eventually becomes a Slam winner? Or will she be the next Jelena Jankovic, an accidental top dog who isn’t physical enough to handle the two-week events? I don’t know. What matters today is that Wozniacki was the player who made the most of her 2010, who remained committed throughout, and who kept her matches interesting—more interesting than she was given credit for—simply by finding ways to win them. That’s about as entertaining as we can ask a tennis player to be.
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