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Caroline Wozniacki

Caroline Wozniacki ; born July 11, 1990, Odense) is a Danish tennis player. She achieved her career-high rank of #16 on September 29, 2008. She is the only Danish woman currently in the Top 450 on the WTA Tour, and more importantly the Top 20.

Private life

Wozniacki is the daughter of Polish parents (her father Piotr, and her mother Anna). As such, she is multilingual, fluent in Polish, Danish, English and also speaks Russian fairly well.

She is from a very sports oriented family. Her mother played on the Polish national volleyball team. Her father played football professionally in Germany, and they moved to Denmark when he was sold to a Danish club. Her older brother Patrick Wozniacki is a professional football player, playing for BK Frem in Copenhagen.

Playing style

Her game is characterized by solid baseline play with few net approaches and few unforced errors. When under pressure she often returns high and slow, giving her time to get back in position. Her best shot is her two-handed backhand down the line. She is strong mentally and plays well on big points. Her relative weak points are a lack of snap in her forehand and a tendency to sometimes be a bit too defensive, waiting for the opponent to fail instead of hitting outright winners. Her serve is solid if not among the hardest on the tour. Her volleys need a little more work, though not a major drawback with her style of play.

Career

She has won several junior tournaments (including the 2006 Wimbledon girls' singles tournament and the 2005 Orange Bowl tennis championship), and made her debut on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour at Cincinnati's Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open on July 19, 2005, losing to the top-seeded and later champion Patty Schnyder in the first round.

2006

In 2006, she was the first seed at the Australian Open (junior girl's singles), but lost the final to eight-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, with the score 6–1, 2–6, 3–6. She was seeded second with Anna Tatishvili in the doubles-tournament, but the pair was knocked out in the semi-final by the French-Italian pair Alize Cornet and Corinna Dentoni, who were seeded eighth.

In February, 2006, in Memphis, she reached her first WTA Tour quarterfinal, beating Kristina Brandi and Ashley Harkleroad in the first two rounds before losing to third-seeded Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden.

Before Wimbledon, Wozniacki won the Liverpool International Tennis Tournament beating Ashley Harkleroad in the semi-finals.

Later that year she was given a wildcard to the 2006 Wimbledon Championships senior qualifying tournament, where she was beaten in the first qualifying round by Miho Saeki in three sets: 6–3, 2–6, 3–6. However, Wozniacki went on to win the girls' singles tournament, beating Slovakian Magdalena Rybarikova 3–6, 6–1, 6–3 in the final.

In August 2006 she reached another WTA Tour quarterfinal, this time at the Nordea Nordic Light Open in Stockholm. She defeated top 100 players Iveta Benesova and Eleni Daniilidou before falling to eventual champion Jie Zheng (seeded 3rd).

Wozniacki was seeded #2 in the year's last major tournament, the 2006 U.S. Open - Girls' Singles. In the first round, on September 3, she won the first set against Russian Alexandra Panova, but was disqualified in the second set for verbally abusing an umpire. Wozniacki was said to have used an expletive in referring to a linesman who made a disputed call, however, on her blog, she claimed to say "take your sunglasses of [sic]" and to be mistaken for talking to the linesman when she was criticizing herself after the next point.

In her last junior tournament, the Osaka Mayor's Cup, she won the girls' singles and doubles.

Her first senior title came shortly after on October 29, 2006, when she won the $25,000 ITF-tournament in Istanbul by beating Tatjana Malek 6–2, 6–1 in the final.

Wozniacki was set to face Venus Williams on November 27, 2006 in an exhibition match in Copenhagen, but five days prior to the event, Williams canceled because of an injury. The two did, however, face each other in the Memphis WTA Tier III event on February 20, 2007. Williams beat Wozniacki 6–4, 6–4, ending the 9-match winning streak Wozniacki had at the time.

On November 30, 2006 Caroline Wozniacki was named ambassador for Danish Junior Tennis by the Culture Minister of Denmark, Brian Mikkelsen.

2007

On February 4, 2007 she won the singles title in Ortisei, Italy, at an ITF $75,000 tournament, beating the Italian player Alberta Brianti by 4–6 7–5 6–3. On March 4, 2007 she won the $75,000 ITF tournament in Las Vegas, beating top-seed Akiko Morigami 6–3, 6–2 in the final.

She obtained a wild card for the 2007 Indian Wells Masters main draw and made her WTA Tier I-debut there. She was knocked out in the 2nd round by Martina Hingis, 6–1, 6–3. The two faced each other again on April 27 in Copenhagen for an exhibition match, where Wozniacki again lost by 6–7 (7–9), 6–3, 2–6.

She then made the semifinals of Tokyo in October, her first career semifinal and also the first Danish woman to reach a WTA semifinal since Tine Scheuer-Larsen in 1986 at Bregenz. Wozniacki lost to Venus Williams 6–3 7–5.

2008

On January 2, 2008, Wozniacki participated in an exhibition tournament in Hong Kong. She lost her first match to former no.1 Maria Sharapova in straight sets 6–2, 6–2. But she won the doubles event with her partner, the singles champion Venus Williams.

At the 2008 Australian Open, she defeated Argentine Gisela Dulko (6–1, 6–1), no. 21 seed Alyona Bondarenko of Ukraine (7–6, 6–1) and German Sabine Lisicki (4–6, 6–4, 6–3). In the fourth round, she lost to fourth-seeded Serbian Ana Ivanović (6–1, 7–6).

Her next tournament was the Qatar Total Open in Doha where she reached the quarterfinals, but was crushed by fourth seed Maria Sharapova 6–0, 6–1.

Following that, she played in the Cellular South Cup, where she again made the quarterfinals, before losing comprehensively to the eventual champion, Lindsay Davenport, 6–0, 6–2.

At the Pacific Life Open she made the fourth round, losing to 2nd seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 6–2, 6–3. Earlier in the tournament she defeated the 18th seed, Russia's Maria Kirilenko in straight sets 6–2, 6–0.

She lost in the fourth round of the Miami Masters to Venus Williams.

Wozniacki's next tournament was at the Bausch & Lomb Championships, where she suffered a 3–6, 6–3, 3–6 loss to Alona Bondarenko in the second round. At the Qatar Telecom German Open in Berlin, she fell to Gisela Dulko 6–2, 7–5 again in the second round. Her next event was in Rome at the tier one Internazionali BNL d'Italia. There, she fell to newly crowned World number one Maria Sharapova, 6–4, 7–6(3).

At the 2008 French Open, she was seeded thirtieth, making this the first Grand Slam in which Wozniacki was seeded. In her first round, she defeated Yvonne Meusburger of Austria 6–0, 6–2. Her second round opponent was Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus. Wozniacki won this match 6–0, 6–4 to once again set up a match with Ana Ivanovic, as she did in the 2008 Australian Open. Ivanovic went on to knock Wozniacki out of a Grand Slam tournament for the second time this year with a 6–4, 6–1 victory.

As a warm up for the grass season, like the two previous years, Wozniacki played in the exhibition tournament Liverpool International which gains no ranking points. She won the tournament by beating Michelle Larcher de Brito 6–2, 6–0, Tamaryn Hendler 6–2, 6–2, Katarzyna Piter 6–1, 6–1, Tamaryn Hendler (again) 6–3, 6–4 and Ashley Harkleroad (the 2007 winner) 4–6, 6–4, 10–5 (super tie-break). When she won in Liverpool in 2006, also by defeating Harkleroad, Wozniacki went on to win the Wimbledon (Girl's) title.

June 18 Wozniacki took her first top 5 scalp, defeating world #4 Svetlana Kuznetsova 6–2, 6–2 in the second round at the International Women's Open in Eastbourne, before losing to Samantha Stosur in the quarterfinals.

In Wimbledon 2008, she reached the third round, but lost to second seed Jelena Janković 2–6, 6–4, 6–2.

She reached the semifinal at Slovenia Open in Portorož, losing 6–4, 6–4 to the eventual champion, Sara Errani.

At the Nordic Light Open in Stockholm she won her first WTA tournament without losing a single set, beating the top seed and world no. 10, Agnieszka Radwańska, 6–4, 6–1 in the semifinal. She only lost 11 games from the quarter finals onwards.

At the Olympics in Beijing she beat world no. 12, Daniela Hantuchova 6–1, 6–3 in the 2nd round. In round 3 she fell to world no. 7 and eventual champion, Elena Dementieva, 7–6, 6–2.

In New Haven she beat world no. 13, Marion Bartoli, 6–4, 6–0 in the quarter final. In the semifinal she beat world no. 18, Alizé Cornet, 7–5, 6–4, her 11th straight set victory in her last 12 matches. In the final she beat world no. 11, Anna Chakvetadze, 3–6, 6–4, 6–1 to win her first Tier II tournament.

She was the 21 seed at the U.S Open, facing players outside the top 100 in the first two rounds. She won both matches, dropping just 3 games in each. In round 3 she defeated world no. 14, Victoria Azarenka, 6–4, 6–4. This was her 15th win in the last 16 matches. In round 4 she lost against second seed and eventual runner-up Jelena Jankovic 3–6, 6–2, 6–1, her fourth Grand Slam loss of the year against a Serbian.

At China Open she lost her opening match in singles 7–6, 6–4 against her doubles partner, Anabel Medina Garrigues, but they still managed to win the doubles title, beating Chinese duo Han Xinyun and Xu Yi-Fan 6–1, 6–3 in the final. It was Wozniacki's first WTA doubles title.

In the Tier III tournament AIG Japan Open she was the top seed for the first time on the WTA Tour. She lived up to it, losing only one set on her way to the final where she beat Kaia Kanepi of Estonia 6–2, 3–6, 6–1, her third WTA singles title of the year.

In the strong Tier I tournament Kremlin Cup in Moscow she was not seeded. She beat the eight-seeded Anna Chakvetadze in the first round but in the second round she had to retire due to sickness when Nadia Petrova was ahead 6–4, 3–2.

Her current win-loss record for the year (exhibition tournaments not included) is 49–18 in singles and 8–8 in doubles. She is ranked at 16 in singles and 79 in doubles. She is #13 in the race for the Sony Ericsson Championship.

WTA Tour singles titles

Legend
Grand Slam (0)
WTA Championships (0)
Tier I (0)
Tier II (1)
Tier III (1)
Tier IV (1)

#	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in final	Score
1.	03 August 2008	Nordic Light Open, Stockholm, Sweden	Hard	Vera Dushevina	6–0 6–2
2.	23 August 2008	New Haven, Connecticut, USA	Hard	Anna Chakvetadze	3–6, 6–4, 6–1
3.	05 October 2008	AIG Japan Open, Tokyo, Japan	Hard	Kaia Kanepi	6–2, 3–6, 6–1

WTA Tour doubles titles

Legend
Grand Slam (0)
WTA Championships (0)
Tier I (0)
Tier II (1)
Tier III (0)
Tier IV (0)

#	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in Final	Score
1.	28 September 2008	Beijing	Hard	Anabel Medina Garrigues	Han Xinyun Xu Yi-Fan	6–1 6–3

Singles performance time line

''To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only once a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded.

Tournament	2005	2006	2007	2008	Career Win-Loss
Grand Slams
Australian Open	A	A	A	4R	3-1
French Open	A	A	1R	3R	2-2
Wimbledon	A	LQ	2R	3R	3-2
U.S. Open	A	A	2R	4R	4-2
Year-End Championship
WTA Tour Championships	A	A	A		0-0
Olympic Games
Summer Olympics	NH	NH	NH	3R	2-1
WTA Tier I Tournaments
Doha¹	Not Tier I			QF	3-1
Indian Wells	A	A	2R	4R	4-2
Miami	A	A	A	4R	3-1
Charleston	A	A	A	A	0-0
Berlin	A	A	A	2R	1-1
Rome	A	A	A	3R	2-1
San Diego²	A	A	A	NH	0-0
Montreal/Toronto	A	A	1R	A	2-1
Tokyo	A	A	A	1R	0-1
Moscow	A	A	A	2R	1-1
Career statistics
Tournaments played	2	11	19	13	45
Finals reached	0	2	3	1	6
Tournaments won	0	1	2	2	5
Hardcourt win-loss	0-2	10-5	14-9	37-10	61-26
Clay win-loss	0-0	5-3	7-6	7-5	19-14
Grass win-loss	0-0	0-1	1-1	4-2	5-4
Carpet win-loss	0-0	2-1	9-1	1-1	12-3
Overall win-loss	0-2	17-10	31-17	49-18	97-47
Year-end rank	NR	237	60	TBD	n/a