[DownInAHole]

Originally Posted by Protoss

Are you referring to being worried that Caro might lose before a match or during a match?

Both I guess. Just as an example, in the early rounds of the slams when she was facing players well outside the top fifty I was never worried that she might lose. Now there is virtually no such match where I don't worry that she might lose. It might be just me that feels that way but I doubt it. I can (kind of) accept the idea that she can't beat top ten players with any regularity but it is very disappointing that she is struggling so badly against non top thirty players, especially since she once really dominated them.

[Blu€]

Originally Posted by DownInAHole

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?

Against Vekic , I was pretty confident that she had that one in the bag. But I understand what you say, these days most of her matches are 3 set battles with bad ending.
I still have hopes though, after that painful loss against Li in 2011 I thought she'd be mentally devastated for a long while and yet she came up with her best tennis. Of course circumstances are different but I believe she can turn things around.

[marineblue]

I think that she is not too upset about her AO run. She overcame Lisicki in a tough match which many expected her to lose and the rest of the other matches were not bad neither. Now many opportunities open up. In Quatar she has 1 point to defend and 200 in Dubai.

[CWTennis]

There was ESPN tennis live chat with Brad and Chrissie on facebook, someone asked them who would they want to coach on tour, Evert's answer was- Caroline Wozniacki!

[bruce goose]

Originally Posted by CWTennis

There was ESPN tennis live chat with Brad and Chrissie on facebook, someone asked them who would they want to coach on tour, Evert's answer was- Caroline Wozniacki!

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

[Protoss]

Originally Posted by marineblue

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.

What if there was some sort of a gradual transition? Caro could get used to dealing with someone else, perhaps a hitting partner or some kind of technical consultant, allbeit not in the role of a coach. Piotr could take a day off here and there.

For example, Michael Joyce started off as Sharapova's hitting partner but eventually became her coach. I'm not suggesting him as a coach for Caro, just an example.

[goldenlox]

Originally Posted by Protoss

What if there was some sort of a gradual transition? Caro could get used to dealing with someone else, perhaps a hitting partner or some kind of technical consultant, allbeit not in the role of a coach. Piotr could take a day off here and there.

For example, Michael Joyce started off as Sharapova's hitting partner but eventually became her coach. I'm not suggesting him as a coach for Caro, just an example.

Caro is very comfortable with her dad as coach.
A lot of players would have done something drastic in Caro's situation. Nadia was doing great late last year & changed coaches. Sabine just added Sanchez

Whether Caro is right to keep this situation, we will know as years go by. She's obviously not in a panic situation (she just went on vacation)
Look at Vika's draw this year. Wouldnt you dream of Caro having that at a hardcourt major in 2011?
But the key to having a good draw is to get thru it. Sometimes a draw totally falls apart. But it doesnt matter if you already lost to a noncontender
Thats why I saw nothing wrong with losing to Dani & Domi. The tour was going back to hardcourt, and Serena & Kim getting older, Maria wins majors years apart. Just stay the course and build on your foundation.
But thats gone, and maybe gone forever

[marineblue]

Originally Posted by Protoss

What if there was some sort of a gradual transition? Caro could get used to dealing with someone else, perhaps a hitting partner or some kind of technical consultant, allbeit not in the role of a coach. Piotr could take a day off here and there.

For example, Michael Joyce started off as Sharapova's hitting partner but eventually became her coach. I'm not suggesting him as a coach for Caro, just an example.

I think she's had enough with these experiments and now probably wants just a stable team, people whom she trusts, around her.
Looking at her career so far I think the old team has taken her really far and it is understandable that she goes back to what worked before.
IMO Caro is more of a conservative person, not someone who is going to take risks and make many changes in case success is not guaranteed.

[marineblue]

Originally Posted by goldenlox

Caro is very comfortable with her dad as coach.
A lot of players would have done something drastic in Caro's situation. Nadia was doing great late last year & changed coaches. Sabine just added Sanchez

Whether Caro is right to keep this situation, we will know as years go by. She's obviously not in a panic situation (she just went on vacation)
Look at Vika's draw this year. Wouldnt you dream of Caro having that at a hardcourt major in 2011?
But the key to having a good draw is to get thru it. Sometimes a draw totally falls apart. But it doesnt matter if you already lost to a noncontender
Thats why I saw nothing wrong with losing to Dani & Domi. The tour was going back to hardcourt, and Serena & Kim getting older, Maria wins majors years apart. Just stay the course and build on your foundation.
But thats gone, and maybe gone forever

Haha, no way And even that is enough to stress her out so much she takes MTOs
I wonder what would the result be had Vika's draw included the likes of Dani or Domi playing at the level they had when they faced Caro. I think it could mix things up.

[bruce goose]

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

[TennisFan66]

Originally Posted by goldenlox

She's obviously not in a panic situation (she just went on vacation)

but yes, it would appear so : " Let the roadtrip begin! @McIlroyRory driving! Mountains, snow here we come!!! "

I guess we can also conclude, Rory isn't panicking over missing the cut with his new clubs.

[goldenlox]

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

[marineblue]

She wasted a big chance to move upwards the rankings here, that's for sure. At least her AO result is quite good. Now there's another chance coming up,needs to get ready to take it after the vacation.

[Protoss]

Originally Posted by marineblue

She wasted a big chance to move upwards the rankings here, that's for sure. At least her AO result is quite good. Now there's another chance coming up,needs to get ready to take it after the vacation.

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.

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.

[goldenlox]

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