The vultures have been circling. They—we?—have been waiting for more than a week to see how top-seeded and paper No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki would measure up in the first test of her Grand Slam mettle in 2011. The test came today, and for a set and a half we were pretty sure she was going to fail it.
The talk amongst myself and the other journalists who were in Laver Arena watching Wozniacki play Francesca Schiavone was that the Italian was teaching her junior a lesson in placement, tactics, variety. By the time Schiavone was up 3-1 it looked like it was going to be a comprehensive win, one that Wozniacki wouldn’t forget for a while.
Schiavone had all the angles covered. She drew Wozniacki up with short slices and passed her. She hit looping topspin that forced her to reach up and hit from outside of her strike zone, which is never an easy thing for a dyed-in-the-wool, two-handed backhand-sporting baseliner like Wozniacki to do. Schiavone had her off-balance and handcuffed, unsure of where the ball was headed next and what kind of spin and pace it was going to have on it. All signs pointed to a victory for the traditionalist forces of the one-handed backhand and the net-rusher, for the supporters of variety and flair and all-court play.
“I think the players feel the pressure,” Schiavone said, “because I change everything on the court, the speed and the angle.”
Then something unexpected happened. It was Wozniacki, Wozniacki with the reputation as a charisma-starved pusher, who made a change. She started to come forward. At first it looked like nothing more than a bluff. She came in on the wrong shots and was passed by Schiavone. A second break of serve loomed. But Wozniacki kept pushing. She hung on when she needed to and held. In the next game, Schiavone imploded with four straight horrid errors.
“I tried to take one ball at a time. I said, ‘If you get the chance, take it now, or it’s going to be too late,'” Wozniacki said, not helping her cause in the charisma sweepstakes. “I had to step in more. I stood a little bit closer and made her run.”
“She started to push much more,” Schiavone said of Wozniacki in the second set—Schiavone meant “push forward,” not push in the “just get the ball back” sense. The Italian also said she wasn’t tired in the second from her marathon two days earlier with Svetlana Kuznetsova, though a little weariness crept in near the end of the third.
From 3-3, Wozniacki had new life, and she made the most of it. She was the one moving her opponent and doing the things she does well, like coming up with a miraculous crosscourt pass that demoralized Schiavone at 4-3.
“She was playing her tennis,” Schiavone said.
So the traditionalist forces were rolled back in the end. More important, Wozniacki showed that she can recognize the need to change the dynamic of a match, and that she can implement that change. It’s unlikely that Wozniacki will ever be a versatile player, but she has proven herself to be resourceful in the past, and she proved it again today.
Does she have the resources to beat Li Na, the woman who sent her home here last year, and who is the popular sleeper pick to go all the way in 2011? The vultures will back in their/our spots in the media section to find out.
