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Danish Delight - Caroline Wozniacki thread - vol 6

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#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
The last volume has passed 5000 posts, time to start a new one.

 
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#443 · (Edited)
I am not sure exactly why this happens, but a Caroline loss hits me hard. I agree with many here that she shows some improvement over last year. I also agree with those who said her father should distance himself from being a pseudo-coach of Caroline. I have watched for over 3 years now. What I have observed is that when he goes out to talk to her in non-Grand Slam tournaments he does not stop talking for 99% of the time. That is not coaching, it appears to me it is a father dominating a daughter who is now a grown woman. I say this also believing there is absolutely nothing malevolent about it. I just think it hinders her development.
 
#444 ·
I think Caroline wants her dad as coach, at least for this year.
I thought she finished last year well, beat Li & Stosur, made 3 finals.
I'm not in agreement with a lot of you that 2 losses to Sveta is an improvement. And cant gift away the first set to any good player.
Lets see what happens in Doha & Dubai.
Right now she's 4 match wins in 3 tournaments.
 
#451 ·
I agree with the comments above regarding the coaching. I also believe Caro never liked the idea of having a new coach. The fact that she still had Piotr around when the other coach was with her on the court implies that. I think it was an idea of Piotr himself to try new input, he let himself heard several times in the press that he was looking for his replacement. I think that he probably convinced her to give it a try but she was not really committed to that decision.
Maybe this dependance will be detrimental for her in a long run but if a person is not comfortable with new input it's never going to bring anything positive for them no matter how good it was.
 
#453 ·
I agree with the comments above regarding the coaching. I also believe Caro never liked the idea of having a new coach. The fact that she still had Piotr around when the other coach was with her on the court implies that. I think it was an idea of Piotr himself to try new input, he let himself heard several times in the press that he was looking for his replacement.
Well, they've tried this since Caro was a junior, but every time, the Princess has called it 'rejected. Go away' .. :lol: Maybe it is comfort for her. Maybe she knows, Piotr won't demand as much, as an external coach will, so she gets away with doing what she wants .. Who knows .. And I don't really care, as long she's winning matches. She just isn't, and ... as Goldenlux has said a million times ... she's not mentally there any more.
 
#452 ·
I dont know if she is dependent on her dad.
I look at it as a comfort zone issue.
After losing in round 1 in 2 majors in a row, she went to watch golf all week.
I think a fulltime coach would want her to watch the match again and work on what she's not doing well.
With her dad, she knows she can do whatever she wants. Set her training hours and type of practice.

Ultimately, I'll type this for the millionth time, its mental. She just played 3 hardcourt tournaments and lost a 3rd set all 3 matches. Didnt play any top 20 players.
Maybe Sveta is a top 20 player now? She cant be better than Kerber, they just played. You have to take those breakpoints and beat her
 
#454 ·
Yeah,an external coach isn't always necessary--just look at the WS or Hingis.The problem is that it would be intellectually dishonest of Caro to cite those examples because she's not getting anything close to those types of results
 
#458 ·
Yeah, she's still very young. So if she can improve, there's plenty of time.
I hope they can improve her overhead & net game. Even just a little improvement could help on some key points.
 
#462 ·
She'll have tough draws for a while but I think she's up for the challenge. One thing I liked seeing was her fight in this tournament. Hopefully she can keep calm and carry on as the Brits say.
 
#463 ·
She may get an "easy" draw in Kuala Lumpur but as far as slams/madatories/premiers go I think that until she significantly raises her game every draw will be tough. When was the last time that she played a match and, as a fan, you were not worried that she might lose?
 
#464 ·
Are you referring to being worried that Caro might lose before a match or during a match?
 
#470 ·
Will assume that she was just speaking rhetorically...which is a shame because,unlike other highly-driven legends,Evert actually has the sort of calm mindset where she might be able to work with Caro
 
#475 ·
There's a lot to be said for comfort zones,but they're not an end-all;people get quite comfortable with bad habits and patterns of behavior....such as women who continually flock to abusive,controlling relationships or people who use drugs or pornography as an emotional crutch to get by.

Again,I can't say with certainty that Caro is dependent on having her dad as coach,but the premise is at least valid enough to merit discussion and,if she IS dependent and not merely loyal,then that's not a good thing...and it would cast serious doubts as to whether she had sufficient mental toughness
 
#477 ·
Its good they dont panic. Whatever happens, she cant be expected to spend every day practicing. Its too tough a sport physically and mentally
Her team should be watching tape of her 3 losses. So they are ready to work on things that hurt her against Pervak & Sveta

To me, losing to Pervak when healthy & up a set, after ending last season with 3 finals in 5 events, was a huge sign of a bad January coming.
I was hoping she was ready to continue from Moscow, Sofia, but that was as bad a loss as I could remember. If its mental, that really was a bad sign.
Last year she won matches in Perth & served for the match vs Aga in Sydney. This was a much worse January than 2012
 
#479 ·
Realistically she only cost herself one ranking spot and 220 ranking points by not beating Kuznetsova as I think Caro almost certainly would have lost to Vika in the quarters. :shrug:

Her early losses in Brisbane and Sydney don't really matter as far as the rankings go as she would have had to get past the quarters to gain points and in the process have to beat Vika in Brisbane and Kerber in Sydney, neither of which was likely. :shrug:
 
#480 ·
I'm not concerned about the ranking at all. What the top players do is get thru their draws.
Aga won Miami and was in the Wimbledon final last year. Sharapova won FO and was in a lot of big finals (Olympics, AO, IW, Miami, Beijing, YEC)
Both Maria & Aga were blown off the court by Li.
But the rest of the tour has no chance because they cant get thru draws.
Players like Goerges or Kirilenko are good enough to be top 15, but you never see them in these big matches. Thats where Caroline is now.
You never see her in a big match. Biggest match since USO SF in 2011 (about 16 months ago) was AO QF (year ago) & Miami SF.
She used to be like Aga, in a lot of big matches.
Until she can get thru players like Sveta, Goerges, Ivanovic, Paszek, Kanepi, this will continue.

She should have played Vika twice & Kerber this January, but she loses to noncontenders
I know she's trying hard, but so is everyone else. And when players face Caroline, they know they are playing someone who loses these matches. Sveta played those matches like she knew she had chances. Then lost in 2 sets to Kerber & Vika
 
#484 ·
Yes, she's scheduled to play them.
 
#489 ·
I forgot about that exo before IW. Very tricky if she has a tough early IW draw.
Another exo before Miami.
We'll see how this works out. I think her results dropped off in January, even from last year.
She might need that Malaysian tournament for confidence
 
#491 ·
look like caro will be playing Porsche Tennis Grand Prix as well
 
#500 ·
Where'd you hear that? It's not on her schedule at her site.

Adding Stuttgart would just be adding on to the craziness of her schedule.
 
#492 ·
Regarding Caro's play 2013 after a few encouraging signs right at the end of 2012 - Brisbane and Sydney I don't read too much into them that she didn't start off the blocks playing well right from the word go. But I am encouraged by her AO performance and the match by the match she lost against Sveta more than the matches she lost. I was impressed by how she played and really the only questionmark for me is how is she going to continue to play. Because if she continues to play as well as she did at the end of 2012 and as well as she did against Sveta - she will win a lot more matches and there is no doubt in my mind that she will qualify for the YEC.

A lot has been made of Caro becoming weak in pressure points and not holding serve then and if she could that it would be different because the Caro of old was mentally strong in those situations. However, I think that is tied up with her overall game just going South and particularly the number of UEs she makes since her drop with no noticable increase in winners or forced errors from her opponents. However - against Sveta in a 3-setter she had 23 winners to 22 UEs and shell get a lot of wins with those stats.

The biggest problem with Caro's serve is her 2nd serve. And it always has been even in her heyday. And it's unrealistic to expect that she's not going to have at least one servicve game as the match gets tighter where she struggles to get any 1st serves in. No player is exempt from that. When that happens - a lot is dependant on opponent and her mentality. A match can turn on whether her opponet blasts a winner or dumps the return in the net. When Caro lost her serve the end af the 3rd set - Sveta blasted 2 winners off Caro's 2nd serves. She made 4 winners to 1 UE in the last 2 games of the match.

I think the difference between now and then is that winning matches puts more pressure on opponents when it gets tight and losing matches means opponents are less likely to crack when it gets tight. Which is a vicious circle. To break the circle - she has to play tough the whole match. Don't give points away or if she does - don't let the free points she gives away get away from the winners.

So to sum up - I'd like Caro to look back at that matych in a positive light as to how to keep up playing like that the rest of 2013 rather thanm dwelling too much on if this or that she might have won.
 
#519 · (Edited)
Caro hasn't done a good job of following on her good matches during this slump though. :shrug:

Caro used to be better at winning ugly and being able to prevail in pressure situations despite her overall level of play in that match/set not being that good.

What about taking some pace off her 1st serve in critical situations of sets or matches in order to get some more first serves in?
 
#496 ·
Looking at her schedule I can see why she went on vacation before all this.:lol: It's a packed schedule however I think it's realistic because it counts with a possibility of some hiccups resulting in early losses. Her AO schedule also looked intense and in the end she played 7 matches altogether. :shrug:
I think that she won't take Kuala Lumpur very seriously because it ends just a day before an exhibition.
Fingers crossed Caro rakes as many points as possible during her spring campaign.
 
#501 ·
Charleston at the end of the schedule makes me pretty concerned. The last time a tired Caro played on green clay she ended up with an ankle injury. :scared:

I'd be pretty dissapointed if she was putting an exhibition ahead of an actual tournament. Kuala Lumpur may be one the few opportunities for Caro to win a title this year.
 
#522 ·
Charleston is sometimes easier. I think both William sisters were there last year.
Its possible that Vika improved enough that Caro cant beat her on hardcourt. In a one on one sport, that can happen. Djokovic kept Nadal from winning more majors off clay.
All you need is one player who is better than you and you dont win.
But if Caro can get near Vika's level, get near Vika's current mental toughness, Vika wont be winning all of them. She will have her adversity, like everyone else.
Caroline will still have opportunities, but not if she cant beat Sveta, Pervak, Safarova, Ivanovic, Goerges, Begu, etc..
Its been a long time since IW 2011
 
#524 ·
The important thing is that Caro took a huge step backward at an age where Vika & Aga were slowly improving, under the radar.
Its probably not an accident that Petra & Caro look lost, while Vika & Aga (who didnt win a major or get to #1) where able to improve without huge expectations.
Vika & Aga handled their 2012 success well, and they are both playing well. Major difference this year so far is that Li was in Aga's quarter & was healthy and in top form for that match.

Both Caro and Petra have to pull themselves together, both mentally & gamewise, and get back in the mix. They were the top 2 young players of 2011.
Obviously not easy. Both of them look like they are mentally struggling big time
Not easy, but you have to make the most of every opportunity, and Caroline, with only 5 match wins in the last 4 majors) is not taking advantage of her situations
 
#525 ·
The important thing is that Caro took a huge step backward at an age where Vika & Aga were slowly improving, under the radar.
Its probably not an accident that Petra & Caro look lost, while Vika & Aga (who didnt win a major or get to #1) where able to improve without huge expectations.
Vika & Aga handled their 2012 success well, and they are both playing well. Major difference this year so far is that Li was in Aga's quarter & was healthy and in top form for that match.

Both Caro and Petra have to pull themselves together, both mentally & gamewise, and get back in the mix. They were the top 2 young players of 2011.
Obviously not easy. Both of them look like they are mentally struggling big time
Not easy, but you have to make the most of every opportunity, and Caroline, with only 5 match wins in the last 4 majors) is not taking advantage of her situations
Yes I agree with the first two sentences in particular. The specific difference of opinion I have to most posters here is that I think she played very well against Sveta. You and many others have a different opinion and say the same things about her in that match as in other matches - can't win pressure points and bemoan "she didn't take advantage.." So that the only consideration seems to be whether she actually wins a match regardless how she played. Also I think you posted you don't think she played well against Sveta which we just have completely different opinions.

My biggest fear by far is that her match against Sveta was a one off and she reverts to her norm in her slump with loads of UEs and nothing to compensate for them. But where I seem to differ from people here is that I would be delighted if she could keep the level up that she played against Sveta and have no doubt she would start winning more and make the YEC and that can have it's own momentum. And that to me is the most important thing rather than she was simply unable to convert the match into a win this time..
 
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