Sports and Players: Caroline Wozniacki Female Tennis Player

Caroline Wozniacki (born 11 July 1990) is a Danish professional tennis player. She is the current World No. 1 on the WTA Tour. As of 4 July 2011, she has held this position for 38 weeks. She is the first Danish tennis player to hold the top ranking position and 20th overall.

Since her WTA debut in 2005, she has improved her year-end ranking each year until finishing on top in 2010. She has won 17 WTA singles titles as of May 2011, three in 2008, three in 2009, six in 2010 (the most since Justine Henin's ten in 2007), and five in 2011. She was runner-up at the 2009 US Open and the 2010 WTA Tour Championships in Doha to Kim Clijsters. She won the 2006 Wimbledon Girls' Singles, but has yet to win a Women's Grand Slam title. She also holds two WTA titles in doubles.

Wozniacki is the daughter of Polish immigrants, Piotr and Anna Wozniacki. Her mother played on the Polish women's national volleyball team, and her father played professional football. The couple moved to Denmark when Piotr signed for the Danish football club Boldklubben 1909. Wozniacki's older brother Patrik is a professional footballer for Hvidovre IF in Denmark.

Wozniacki's best friend is her fellow Danish tennis player Malou Ejdesgaard, her doubles partner in some WTA tournaments. They are trying to gain entry to the 2012 Summer Olympics in doublesWhen asked in 2008 by Teen Vogue magazine what sports beside tennis she liked to play, Wozniacki said "I like handball, soccer, swimming, playing the piano, and all kinds of different things."On 20 December 2010, she signed a three-year deal to endorse Turkish Airlines' business class service.Wozniacki is a Liverpool F.C. supporter. She wore a Liverpool shirt signed by footballer Steven Gerrard on court in the 2011 Qatar Ladies Open.

In 2006, she was the top seed at the Australian Open (junior girls' singles), but lost the final to eighth-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia. She was seeded second with partner Anna Tatishvili in the doubles tournament, but the pair was knocked out in the semifinals by the French-Italian pair of Alizé Cornet and Corinna Dentoni, who were seeded eighth.

On 4 February, she won an $75,000 ITF singles title in Ortisei, Italy, beating the Italian player Alberta Brianti. On 4 March, she won the $75,000 ITF tournament in Las Vegas, beating top-seed Akiko Morigami in the final. She obtained a wild card for the Pacific Life Open main draw and made her Tier I debut there. She was knocked out in the second round by Martina Hingis.

At the Australian Open, Wozniacki defeated Gisela Dulko and 21st seed Alona Bondarenko on her way to the Round of 16, where she lost to the eventual finalist and fourth-seeded Ana Ivanović. At the French Open, she was seeded thirtieth, making this the first Grand Slam tournament in which Wozniacki was seeded. She again lost in the third round to the eventual champion and World No. 2 Ana Ivanović.

Wozniacki's started the season in Auckland where she lost to Elena Vesnina in the quarterfinals. She also reached the quarterfinals in Sydney, this time losing to World No. 2 Serena Williams 6–7(5), 6–3, 7–6(3) after having three match points. Seeded 11th at the Australian Open, Wozniacki lost in the third round to Australian wild card Jelena Dokić.

At the year-end Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha, Wozniacki was drawn in a group with Francesca Schiavone, Samantha Stosur and Elena Dementieva. She defeated Dementieva in her first round robin game, but lost to Stosur in the second. She won her last round-robin match in the group against Schiavone, securing the year-end World No. 1 rank and a place in the semifinals against the winner of the other group, Vera Zvonareva. Wozniacki defeated her, but then lost . in the final in three sets to Kim Clijsters. Wozniacki ended the season with six WTA singles titles, the most on the tour. Clijsters won five and no other player won more than two.

During the offseason, Wozniacki switched her racquet make from Babolat to Yonex. Wozniacki began her 2011 season with an exhibition match in Thailand against Kim Clijsters. She lost 3–6, 6–4, 10–12 after a super tie-break. Wozniacki then played another exhibition, the team event Hong Kong Tennis Classic where she represented and was Captain of Team Europe.

She won two matches against Team Asia Pacific before getting crushed 6–1, 6–0 by world no. 2 Vera Zvonareva in the final against Team Russia. Her first WTA tournament was the Medibank International Sydney. She received a bye to the second round where she lost 6–3, 6–3 to Dominika Cibulková.

The Australian Open was Wozniacki's first major as World No. 1. She lost to Li Na, who had defeated her the previous year, in the semifinals 6–3, 5–7, 3–6, after failing to convert a match point when trying to serve out the match at 5–4 in the second set. Wozniacki dropped to No. 2 behind Kim Clijsters during the week of 14 February, but regained the top spot the following week. She received a bye to the second round in Dubai where, in the quarterfinals, she beat Shahar Pe'er 6–2, 6–4 to ensure her No. 1 position in the next rankings update. She went on to defeat Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final 6–1, 6–3 to take her 13th career singles title and first of the year.

In Doha she received a bye to the second round and reached the final after defeating Nadia Petrova, Flavia Pennetta and Marion Bartoli in straight sets. She lost to Vera Zvonareva in the final 4–6, 4–6. Wozniacki's next tournament was the e-Boks Sony Ericsson Open in her native Denmark. In the final, she defeated 4th seed Lucie Šafářová 6–1, 6–4 taking her fifth title of the year.

At Wimbledon she had straight-set wins until the fourth round but then lost 6–1, 6–7(5), 5–7 to 24th seed Dominika Cibulková.Wozniacki temporarily returned to the red clay for the 2011 Swedish Open in Bastad. She overcame Alize Cornet in the first round 6–4, 6–4 to book a second round encounter with local hope Sofia Arvidsson.

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Caroline Wozniacki Female Tennis Player

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