The Last Word returns, and each weekday, starting on Monday, December 5, we'll give you our year-end thoughts about tennis' best players—this time focusing on the ATP and WTA Top 10. We'll alternate tours each day; here's who we've looked at so far.
Best of 2011
Although Wozniacki dodged a potential bullet when hard-charging Victoria Azarenka retired after just three games in their quarterfinal-round encounter at Indian Wells, the Dane went on to dismantle Maria Sharapova and Marion Bartoli to win the title. Had Wozniacki not added those points to her ranking, Petra Kvitova likely would finished as the year-end No. 1.
Worst of 2011
Following a disappointing Wimbledon, Wozniacki played Bastad (on clay) and then moved to the North American hard courts, where her game usually shines. But she lost both of her openers in Toronto and Cincinnati; at the latter to No. 76 Christina McHale.
Year in Review
Wozniacki’s fortunes, and profile, remind me of those famous lines with which Charles Dickens opens his sprawling classic, A Tale of Two Cities: It was the best of times, it was worst of times. . .
Despite long stretches of admirable consistency, Wozniacki lived on borrowed time in 2011, tenaciously clinging to the No. 1 ranking despite having disappointing results at the major tournaments—and almost any other time she played anyone with a ranking anywhere near her own. She won six tournaments, but the highest-ranked player she defeated in a final was No. 17 Bartoli, followed by No. 23 Svetlana Kuznetsova. That isn’t exactly domination.
Wozniacki’s year began with a first-round disaster against Dominika Cibulkova at Sydney, but she bounced back with a solid performance at the Australian Open (l. in the semis to Li Na). She reached the final in her next two events, but after picking up the title at Indian Wells was dumped in the third round of Miami by Andrea Petkovic.
Wozniacki’s effective if unglamorous consistency came to the rescue again in Charleston, where she won her first clay tournament of the season. But she didn’t fare as well on Euroclay, taking back-to-back losses to Germany’s Julia Goerges in Stuttgart (in the final) and in the third round of Madrid. Wozniacki then held steady to the French Open, but was blown off the court in third round—through no fault or flaw of her own—by Daniela Hantuchova, who simply came up with a very, very hot hand.
Cibulkova, Wozniacki's next conquerer at a Slam, didn't play Hantuchova-grade, lights-out tennis at Wimbledon, but she tagged the No. 1 again, this time in a 7-5 in-the-third heartbreaker. That had to be a major disappointment for Wozniacki, who then won just one match at her next three tournaments. She righted herself in time for the U.S. Open with yet another title at New Haven (the fourth of her career), but squandered her last chance to win that elusive first Grand Slam by losing in blowout fashion to Serena Williams in the semis.
As if aware of the lost opportunity and its implications, Wozniacki had a so-so fall and lost two of her three round-robin matches at the WTA Championships, failing to qualify for the knockout round. Yet she still finished the season at No. 1—the first player of either sex in the Open era to finish No. 1 in two years in a row without having won his or her first Grand Slam title.
See for Yourself
Wozniacki’s best qualities are her mobility and reliable ground strokes. But she lives the life of the consistent, play-it-safe counter-puncher, making her nearly bullet-proof against most baseliners but vulnerable to any bold player who is willing to take the game to her—as Germany’s Goerges more than amply demonstrates in these highlights from their encounter in Madrid: