[Patrick345]

Originally Posted by Achernar

Well said.

Wozniacki is probably one of the mentally strongest players on Tour, but I'm fairly sure that 2 years of disrespectful comments from fans and media took their toll on her confidence. I am certain that this pressure are the main cause of the problems that she has experienced in 2012.

I´d love to see these two years of negative articles in the media about Wozniacki. That is revisionist history at its best. Wozniacki, due to her looks and age, and Serena´s absence/insecure future and Sharapova´s injury struggles was treated as the heir apparent for a very long time. She was never treated as badly as the other Slamless #1´s, despite having less game and far worse results at the Slams.

[Chrissie-fan]

Originally Posted by Patrick345

I´d love to see these two years of negative articles in the media about Wozniacki. That is revisionist history at its best. Wozniacki, due to her looks and age, and Serena´s absence/insecure future and Sharapova´s injury struggles was treated as the heir apparent for a very long time. She was never treated as badly as the other Slamless #1´s, despite having less game and far worse results at the Slams.

Well, as someone who regularly payed a visit at the Caro players forum in search of material to use against her and her fans at GM I'm sure that you must have noticed that most Caro fans already complained about negative articles, blogs, comments and so on at the time when she was #1, so it's hardly revisionist history as far as they are concerned. But I guess it all depends on whether you like her or not, don't it? If you like her that stuff was annoying, if you hated her like the vast majority of TF members do it was a reason to high five each other and argue that said reporter(s) were just telling it like it was. Until that reporter or pundit said something negative about THEIR fave of course, in which case they immediately returned to the group of those that didn't know what they were talking about.

[Patrick345]

Originally Posted by Chrissie-fan

Well, as someone who regularly payed a visit at the Caro players forum in search of material to use against her and her fans at GM I'm sure that you must have noticed that most Caro fans already complained about negative articles, blogs, comments and so on at the time when she was #1, so it's hardly revisionist history as far as they are concerned. But I guess it all depends on whether you like her or not, don't it? If you like her that stuff was annoying, if you hated her like the vast majority of TF members do it was a reason to high five each other and argue that said reporter(s) were just telling it like it was. Until that reporter or pundit said something negative about THEIR fave of course, in which case they immediately returned to the group of those that didn't know what they were talking about.

Well If I say media, I´m talking about the huge outlets, experts and the journalists that are actually present at the major tennis events and have to interact with players behind their words not TF, messageboards or bloggers. These people will find a way to hate on a firefighter that ran into a burning building to rescue 10 puppies. There is no way the huge TV stations, newspapers and journalists attacked Wozniacki with the same vigor as they attacked Mauresmo, Safina or Jankovic. The Kvitova bandwagon was almost empty (due to her personality) till she won her 2nd major title (the YEC) and had closed the ranking gap on Wozniacki to 100 points. Of course there is a subjective element, but you cannot convince me that Wozniacki due to her looks, media friendly outgoing personality, age and the lack of young competition wasn´t treated positively for a very long time.

[marineblue]

Originally Posted by Achernar

Well said.

Wozniacki is probably one of the mentally strongest players on Tour, but I'm fairly sure that 2 years of disrespectful comments from fans and media took their toll on her confidence. I am certain that this pressure are the main cause of the problems that she has experienced in 2012.

I disagree, she didn't pay that much attention which is why she stayed at no.1 for so long. She did not crumble, but ran out of steam after those 67 weeks.

The ones who did crumble under the pressure were Ivanovic and Safina. Ivanovic lost it due to the big expectations placed on her and Safina because she took criticism to heart and tried to 'prove herself' which created too much pressure.

[Imperfect Angel]

Ana - Pressure
Dinara - Pressure
JJ - Burnout + Pressure
Caro - Burnout + Pressure

[Chrissie-fan]

Originally Posted by marineblue

I disagree, she didn't pay that much attention which is why she stayed at no.1 for so long. She did not crumble, but ran out of steam after those 67 weeks.

She did not crumble for a very long time, but the negative comments nevertheless planted a seed of doubt in her mind up to a point where she started experimenting with different coaches who wanted her to play a different type of game. Whether in the long term working with Sanchez or TJ could have gotten her the results that she was aiming for is hard to say because she gave both of them the boot in a matter of months. But no matter what side of that issue one is on, I think that all of that confused her, and perhaps she even panicked a bit at some point. Her dilemma was/is whether she should stick with the formula that brought her lots of success or get more offensive in the quest to win that elusive slam which holds the very real risk of losing it all if it doesn't work out.

[Patrick345]

Originally Posted by Chrissie-fan

She did not crumble for a very long time, but the negative comments nevertheless planted a seed of doubt in her mind up to a point where she started experimenting with different coaches who wanted her to play a different type of game. Whether in the long term working with Sanchez or TJ could have gotten her the results that she was aiming for is hard to say because she gave both of them the boot in a matter of months. But no matter what side of that issue one is on, I think that all of that confused her, and perhaps she even panicked a bit at some point. Her dilemma was/is whether she should stick with the formula that brought her lots of success or get more offensive in the quest to win that elusive slam which holds the very real risk of losing it all if it doesn't work out.

Guess that is a fair assessment. The whole on and off-coaching situation was a total mess. You need to make the hard cut like Radwanska/Sharapova did or you don´t make it at all. Even Azarenka had her worst stretch of the year during the fail experiment with Sumyk/Mauresmo. You cannot employ two part-time coaches, especially when they pull in different directions.

[marineblue]

Originally Posted by Chrissie-fan

She did not crumble for a very long time, but the negative comments nevertheless planted a seed of doubt in her mind up to a point where she started experimenting with different coaches who wanted her to play a different type of game. Whether in the long term working with Sanchez or TJ could have gotten her the results that she was aiming for is hard to say because she gave both of them the boot in a matter of months. But no matter what side of that issue one is on, I think that all of that confused her, and perhaps she even panicked a bit at some point. Her dilemma was/is whether she should stick with the formula that brought her lots of success or get more offensive in the quest to win that elusive slam which holds the very real risk of losing it all if it doesn't work out.

Good point, I think that she, or better saying, her team decided to take a plunge and change a few things.

[Achernar]

Originally Posted by Patrick345

I´d love to see these two years of negative articles in the media about Wozniacki. That is revisionist history at its best. Wozniacki, due to her looks and age, and Serena´s absence/insecure future and Sharapova´s injury struggles was treated as the heir apparent for a very long time. She was never treated as badly as the other Slamless #1´s, despite having less game and far worse results at the Slams.

Revisionist history? Not quite. As a fan, I had to endure all these attacks along with Wozniacki, in French as well as in English. I know what I'm talking about. Safina had to deal with even more contempt and animosity, but that doesn't mean that the media were respectful towards Caroline. I grant you that the media are appreciating Wozniacki as a person, but they showed nothing but contempt for her game and achievements (and I'm talking about the real media, including the ex-players working for them). I certainly do not intend to track down all those articles, but they're still on the Net, if you really want to see them. But ultimately it's as Chrissie-fan states: "But I guess it all depends on whether you like her or not, don't it? If you like her that stuff was annoying, if you hated her [...] it was a reason to high five each other and argue that said reporter(s) were just telling it like it was".

And Caroline was aware of those criticisms, since the media has been taking pleasure to rub her nose in it. Which prompted responses such as "Um, well, if I don’t have a weapon, then what do the others have? Since I’m No. 1, I must do something right".

Originally Posted by marineblue

I disagree, she didn't pay that much attention which is why she stayed at no.1 for so long. She did not crumble, but ran out of steam after those 67 weeks.

The ones who did crumble under the pressure were Ivanovic and Safina. Ivanovic lost it due to the big expectations placed on her and Safina because she took criticism to heart and tried to 'prove herself' which created too much pressure.

I agree with you for Ivanovic and Safina, especially the latter, but I'm fairly sure that you underestimate the pressure endured by Caroline and its effects on her. She was paying attention and it does explain how poorly she played in 2012. The successive changes of coaches were a reaction to this pressure, while she was trying to live to the expectations put on the number one. I'm not saying she crumbled, she's tough as nails and she dealt with the pressure a lot better than they other "slamless ones", but 2 years of endless negative criticism did affect her in the end. It took a while, but it insidiously affected her, leading her to doubt herself. Chrissie-fan explained it very well by saying "She did not crumble for a very long time, but the negative comments nevertheless planted a seed of doubt in her mind".

@Chrissie-fan: thanks for your answers. Once again we think alike

[Jajaloo]

Originally Posted by antonella

Experiencing and suffering 'Pressure And Burnout' does not necessarily make one a nutcase. Those are two different things, we need seperate catagories: #1Nutcases, #2Burmouts.

#3 Sexually active band geeks
#4 the greatest people you will ever meet
#5 and the worst. Beware of plastics.

[Pavstry.]

Nutcases wont even make #1.

[Joe.]

The fact that Jankovic was #1 still gives me nightmares

[Sund7101]

Ivanovic and Rios. I had to include Rios because he should have been #1 longer and won multiple slams if he wasn't such a headcase.

[Start da Game]

lethallaura's favourite lost her junior no.1 ranking at some point in 2009......

[mboyle]

Nicole Vaidisova didn't reach number 1, but I think she was definitely the biggest nutcase of all, bar none. Of course, the alternative theory is that Stephanek is secretly a vampire and Nicole went Bella Swan on us.