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Danish Delight - Caroline Wozniacki thread - vol 6

419K views 5K replies 83 participants last post by  James 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
The last volume has passed 5000 posts, time to start a new one.

 
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#639 ·
Contrary to DIAH's claims,I've never forbidden any critical fan from posting here.As long as posters aren't abusive towards Caroline,their opinions are welcome,as far as I'm concerned.

From another perspective,I can freely admit that Caro may not have found the wisest balance between personal and tennis life at times,but she's QUITE far from the worst,most unbalanced measure on that scale.There are several players on tour who've made it crystal clear,by their ACTIONS,that tennis is no more than a brief,money-making interruption from their frequent "sexcapades".There's one MEGA-phony slut who stands out from the crowd,and the WTA is desperately waiting for Godot(i.e.,her eternally-delayed "comeback")so that they can justify how they shamefully OVER-promoted as the future Queen of Tennis while she was unworthier of royalty than John Goodman's character in 'King Ralph'.

Even at her laziest lows,Caroline still trains MUCh harder than so many of the plastic cover girls who default matches or w/d from tourneys b/c of medical emergencies such as clogged skin pores.Further,I haven't even seen haters accuse Caroline of loafing,half-assing her way through matches.Those two criteria alone separate Caroline from so many in the rest of the pack,and her commitment makes her more likable as a person...and not just as a player
 
#640 ·
Caro's main advantage over Aga is that she has a bit more power but that advantage will be negated if it's very windy during their match. Then Caro won't dare to hit through the ball much but will just play it safe and then I think Aga's gonna win. The scheduling for today gives me hope, though. From what I've been hearing, the wind blows less later in the day so being last match is good. And from what Caro said, the wind is more bothersome on Court 1 so it should be an advantage to be back on CC (and there's Hawk Eye).
 
#643 ·
Well,let's face it. The only reason for such a fuss to be made is that Caro & Piotr are involved. If someone else would have done it the most of TF would not even notice. I mean, just taking Caro-Kuznetsova match at AO as example, nobody really cared about what Kuzzie did but if Caro was the one to take a medical timeout you'd hear the same comments as now.

Piotr did go over the top a bit but as Tennisfan says people should have a look at how other sports' coaches are reacting sometimes. Mr Woz just needs to let it be and leave it up to Caro to argue her case. If she feels like arguing, well, that's her right. A lot is at stake so she can express her opinion just like anyone else.
 
#647 ·
Is this an important match? Not as big as Sveta in AO a few weeks ago. But if Caroline is going to get back into the top 5 and be a hardcourt slam contender, she has to be able to play Aga tough, like she used to
 
#648 ·
Another loss where she was close to 1 set all and fell apart.
She's been doing this for a long time now.
Inconsistent, sloppy. Pretty much irrelevant in tournaments with YEC players.
The question is: Is this the rest of her career? Does she care enough to end this cycle and move forward?
This was a long term #1, but thats all in the distant past. Now we watch a player who folds and folds, against players who arent going to win the tournament
But I guess she's happy like this, with her dad and mom, and no coach to have to listen to
 
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#656 ·
I think you're being way too hard on her. We can't continue to compare Caro with her own peak version from early 2011. She's clearly not the same player/person anymore. She went through a lot in the meantime; loads of negative publicity from being a slamless no.1, criticism about her defensive style, pressures to change just about every aspect of her game including her coach, entering into a high-profiled relationship with Rory.

This is Caro 2.0. She's trying hard to implement a new style of play and there are small signs that the process is on the right track. But it's going to take a long time to complete the process and she may never get back to achieving what she did before. But I respect her for trying, and if anyone has the discipline and mental strength to successfully overhaul her game it's Caro.
 
#650 ·
I feel like, for the first time this season, she met my expectations so, overall, I consider Doha a success. She went as deep as we could reasonably have expected and lost to a higher ranked player, what more can you expect from Caroline 2.0?

Of course it is impossible not to be disappointed that she was unable to at least force a third set, she surely had her chances, but she is still rebuilding her career and this is a good result considering where she has been over the last year and a half.
 
#651 ·
Caro has been broken 3 times serving for a set in the last two matches she's played: served for the 1st set at 4-4 against Barthel, served for the match at 5-1 2nd set against Barthel, and broken serving for the 2nd set at 5-3 against Aga despite leading 30-0 and 40-30. :(

Caro held for 6-1 1st set at 40-15 against Jugic-Salkic but was down 0-30 and 30-40 serving for the match at 5-2 2nd set. Caro held for 6-3 2nd set against Barthel from 15-40 down.
 
#653 ·
Caroline :sad:

Aga is simply mentally stronger than Caroline. And smarter.

2nd set: 3-0 -> 4-2 -> 5-3 -> SPs -> 5-7 :eek:
 
#655 ·
It happened almost the same against Mona in the first set. How she saved that tie-break it's still unknown :lol: . Against Aga you just can't blow so many chances.
 
#657 ·
It's hard for me to accurately gauge this,but I don't recall Caro's getting lots of Top 5 wins even at her peak,and 2 players whom she USED to beat,Vika and Aga,have gotten significantly better.Can Caro truly force elite players into mistakes when they're on sort of a hot streak?If not,then she'll hit a rankings plateau until she learns how to finish good players off
 
#658 ·
That was also a result of them losing earlier then they could meet with her most of the time. I think that at her best Caro can not only get the elite to make mistakes but also take the initiative and hit a winner. She can mix it up and find a good balance.

The problem now is for her to stop making errors herself when it matters most. She is sometimes mirroring the mistakes of her opponents, IMO.
 
#659 · (Edited)
Here's an interesting stat comparison. The difference between Caro's winners and unforced errors has gotten a lot worse in the last three matches against Aga since Caro beat her in 3 sets at the YEC in 2011. Caro lost the 1st match in three sets having served for the match in the 2nd set (Caro's wrist injury really began to bother her as the 3rd set went on, they were tied at 2-2 3rd set at one point), lost the next match in two having been down 6-4 4-2 at one point, and lost yesterday's in two sets having served for the 2nd set.

Caro's winners and unforced errors against Aga:

2011 YEC: 32 winners and 27 unforced errors / +5 difference
2012 Sydney (sets 1 & 2 combined): 22 winners and 23 unforced errors / -1 difference (I don't have the match total)
2012 Tokyo: 19 winners and 33 unforced errors / -14 difference
2013 Doha: 24 winners and 30 unforced errors / -6 difference

It's pretty impressive that Caro was actually able to post a positive winners to unforced errors difference against Aga and -1 isn't bad at all. Caro needs to find a way to cut her unforced errors down and get her winners to unforced errors difference about even or better again.
 
#675 ·
Here's an interesting stat comparison. The difference between Caro's winners and unforced errors has gotten a lot worse in the last three matches against Aga since Caro beat her in 3 sets at the YEC in 2011. Caro lost the 1st match in three sets having served for the match in the 2nd set (Caro's wrist injury really began to bother her as the 3rd set went on, they were tied at 2-2 3rd set at one point), lost the next match in two having been down 6-4 4-2 at one point, and lost yesterday's in two sets having served for the 2nd set.

Caro's winners and unforced errors against Aga:

2011 YEC: 32 winners and 27 unforced errors / +5 difference
2012 Sydney (sets 1 & 2 combined): 22 winners and 23 unforced errors / -1 difference (I don't have the match total)
2012 Tokyo: 19 winners and 33 unforced errors / -14 difference
2013 Doha: 24 winners and 30 unforced errors / -6 difference

It's pretty impressive that Caro was actually able to post a positive winners to unforced errors difference against Aga and -1 isn't bad at all. Caro needs to find a way to cut her unforced errors down and get her winners to unforced errors difference about even or better again.
Interesting. Well I suppose the positive is that the real dip was 2012 Tokyo and she's on an upwards curve compared to that. It sounds from what I've read in the Live Scoring Thread that she made a ton of those UEs here in Doha at the end of the 2nd set when she allowed Aga to come back and that was the most disappointing part of her last match.

Have you any figures for her earlier matches with Aga when she was just winning tournament after tournament. I think she was already well in decline by 2011 YEC. I bet her UEs in her earlier encounters were way down from all four of the matches you quote.
 
#661 · (Edited)
Good draw if she can (and what she really should do) beat Safarova! Don't think Serena will be motivated enough to play here, she'll probably withdraw before her 2nd round match!

Edit:
Forgot about Sveta, 50/50 chance that she will be in Caro's part of the draw as qualifier! :eek:
 
#665 ·
I hope she is on the right track now. But who is #1 by 3000 points and overhauls their game?
None of this makes any sense, all that matters is that she was in a US Open final at 19, #1 at 20, now at 22 really struggling to get thru any draw.
I dont expect Serena to play after her long week here. So it could be a good draw
 
#670 ·
Perhaps someone who's lost belief/confidence in their game and is frustrated by their slams results. :shrug:

I think Caro may have been looking for some "quick fix" for her game rather than a long term process of trying to improve. Her coaching relationships with Sanchez and Johansson suggest this may be her mindset as there was little improvment over a relative short period of time and then they were gone.
 
#667 ·
It's a really tough call to make with Piotr: On the one hand,a top coach would NEVER consent to such a drastic overhaul to his charge's game,so there are reasonable questions of competence,to some degree.On the other hand,Caro has a warm relationship with her dad,and I'm not sure that she'd be happy without him even if she began finding notable success with another coach
 
#680 ·
Tough draw for Caro but oh well. :shrug: Based on the draw she should make it to the quarters against Serena.

Good luck Caro. :)
 
#681 ·
Nice to even that negative score against Safarova. Tomorrow she can improve another negative score: 1-3 against Zheng (one loss was in 2006, another a retirement).
 
#683 ·
Here's an interesting comment from Caro in a Sports Illustrated article about yesterday's matches in Dubai:

The Dane, who has returned to the top 10 this year, said she feels her passion for the game has returned.

“For me, I’m just really enjoying the tennis and happy to be out there,” Wozniacki said. “I think at one point it was just a job and going and playing, but I feel like I’ve gotten that hunger back and that enjoyment of the game.”

http://carolinewozniacki.dk/caroline-wozniacki-petra-kvitova-win-at-dubai-championship/
 
#684 ·
Her admitting that (I presume) especially last year tennis was just a job for her is indeed interesting. Good to hear her say that she's got the hunger back. Maybe her relationship with Rory was emotionally so overwhelming to her that for awhile it was hard for her to keep her mind fully on tennis, but now she's learned to organize her life and deal with the relationship in such a way that it has less of an impact on her tennis. Let's hope so. :)
 
#686 ·
If Caro's to repeat her title run here in Dubai, it'll go something like this.

1R: Safarova. H2H: 1-2
2R: Zheng. H2H: 1-3
QF: Serena. H2H: 1-5
SF: Aga or Kvitova, both of whom have beaten Caro the last 3 times.
F: Kerber, who has also beaten Caro the last 3 times.

On paper, winning Dubai will be somewhere just shy of a miracle!
 
#688 ·
Serena & Vika are out. Kerber lost, no Li.
Here is a great opportunity for Caroline this week
 
#690 ·
Its a big tournament for Petra, Caro and everyone besides Aga, who is 20-2 this year (only losing to Li & Vika).
But if Caro can win this heading into IW & Miami, maybe she can step into the top 5 group.
First she has a QF to play
 
#691 ·
Caroline into Dubai QF ! :cheer:

Strong performances so far. But one has to say Safarova and Zheng were weak. Head To Head vs Zheng now 2-3, Head To Head vs Safarova now 2-2. Safarova was a mess, played absolutely brainless tennis. 4 Winners, 9 UEs for Caro. 9 Winners, 45 UEs for Lucie. Safarova and Zheng were no competition for Caro, Bartoli now will be the first real test. Hope Caro beats her, a loss would be disappointing.
 
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