“I just didn’t play well. I did too many unforced errors. She played her basic game and didn’t have to do much.”
That was Svetlana Kuznetsova’s post-match assessment of how her opponent, Caroline Wozniacki, beat her on Sunday in the Dubai final. Three-fourths of that statement is indisputably true. Kuznetsova didn’t play well; she was slow and off-balance. She definitely did too many unforced errors, 15 in the first set alone, most of which didn’t land within five feet of the court. And Wozniacki didn’t have to do a ton to win. She probably could have gotten away with playing half as well and still cruised.
But it wasn’t true that Wozniacki just played her basic game. The Dane, who won her first title in Dubai and reclaimed the No. 1 ranking in the process, sounded like a parody of her own press-conference self-parody afterward. “I felt really good out there today," she said. "I felt like I was hitting the ball well, clean, and I could really stay aggressive. I knew I had to, because if Svetlana is allowed to stay and dictate, she’s just too strong.”
Sometimes clichés are clichés just because they’re true. This was the best match I’ve seen Wozniacki play since her crafty win over Maria Sharapova at the U.S. Open last year. If anything, this one was more impressive because Wozniacki didn’t need to be crafty. As she said, she took the match to Kuznetsova in ways that she normally doesn’t. Wozniacki stood closer to the baseline. She changed the ball’s direction and went down the line more often. And as the Tennis Channel’s Corina Morariu pointed out, when Wozniacki had a good look at a forehand, she didn’t just play it safe and roll it back into the court the way she often does. She took it early and went after it, with pace and depth.
Before the match, I would have had a hard time imagining that it would be Kuznetsova who would be doing the scrambling, but that’s how the points played out. Wozniacki broke serve regularly by controlling the rallies in those games right from her return of serve. Only when she got nervous in the middle of the second set did she revert to her ultra-safe, roll the ball back game. It will always be her default; but it’s a better default than going for too much.
This may turn out to be an important match and week for Wozniacki. She killed a few birds with one stone, the least of which, from a long-term standpoint, was getting back to No. 1. She put the tears of Melbourne behind her. She won an event she had never done well in previously, without dropping a set. And she did it with a new assertiveness. All of this should give Wozniacki an expanding sense of accomplishment, of improvement, which isn’t easy to get when you’re No. 1 in the world. The tendency, as Bjorn Borg used to say, is to defend your turf, which means not doing anything differently.
Rather than causing further disorder on the women’s side, Wozniacki’s win gives the tour two success stories at the same time and sets up their possible clash—if she had taken the top spot and then lost in the semis, it would have been a different story. Kim Clijsters, with her two Slams and year-end championship, remains the player of the moment. But if Dubai is any indication, the No. 1 player in the world is gaining on her.
*
What was the big news out of Memphis? That Juan Martin del Potro, a semifinalist, is rounding into form? That big-serve, fast-court, rock-fight tennis made its reappearance and created a “be careful what you wish for” situation? That Milos Raonic continues to defy the anti “media hype” brigade (by the way, writing about a young player who is suddenly winning tournaments and flying up the rankings does not constitute “jumping on the bandwagon,” as some seem to think here)? That Roddick won without being any more aggressive than he has in the recent past, and while fighting congestion and a case of severe grouchiness? Or that he inadvertently revealed the extent of his hair loss by diving for a ball and losing his hat on match point?
