What's Next? WTA No. 10, Caroline Wozniacki

Throughout the next four weeks, our What's Next? series will look at every player who finished in the ATP or WTA Top 10 this season, and consider their future in three different ways.

Wozniacki, who has never won a Grand Slam title, was always a precarious No. 1. In 2012, after two years at the top, she finally fell off the cliff, finishing at the other end of the Top 10 and losing in the first round at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Was her laser focus lost because of outside interests, namely her relationship with golfer Rory McIlroy? Or was coaching confusion to blame, as she hired and fired Thomas Johansson in less than a year? Whatever it was, Wozniacki was uncharacteristically inconsistent from week to week, and despite vowing to solve her aggression problems, ended the season where she began it: Behind the baseline. One ray of hope: After bottoming out at the Open, Caro won her first two tournaments of the year in the fall.

Best Case Scenario: As those two late-season wins attest, whatever her troubles, Wozniacki keeps plugging away. She may never have the weapons, and she may always be too cautious to try to develop them, but she’s has yet to lose her gritty spirit and belief that got her to the top in the first place. She could build on those titles, she had a rare win over Serena last year, and she still plays Maria and Vika tough.

Worst Case Scenario: Has Wozniacki found her real level? Now that a new top class has asserted itself, she might be the women’s equivalent of Lleyton Hewitt, who snuck to No. 1 in the two-year transition period between the Sampras and Federer generations. Hewitt, a weaponless grinder like Wozniacki, would soon drop out of the Top 10 and never return.

Australian Open Outlook: There are bitter memories here. Two years ago, Wozniacki, the top seed, had a match point against Li Na to reach the final but eventually lost in three. She hasn’t been that close to a major final since. The relatively slow surface in Melbourne doesn’t hurt Caro, exactly, but it doesn’t help speed up her shots as much as it does some other, more powerful players’.

More What's Next?

- ATP No. 10, Richard Gasquet
- WTA No. 10, Caroline Wozniacki
- ATP No. 9, Janko Tipsarevic
- WTA No. 9, Sam Stosur
- ATP No. 8, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
- WTA No. 8, Petra Kvitova
- ATP No. 7, Juan Martin del Potro
- WTA No. 7, Li Na
- ATP No. 6, Tomas Berdych
- WTA No. 6, Sara Errani