What's going on with Caroline Wozniacki? New Coaching is in the air

 Will Caroline come out of the shadow she's fallen in?

Young, beautiful, marketable and successful. This was Caroline Wozniacki no longer than two years ago, when despite a few problems to keep it at the end of 2011 she was holding for the second year in a row the crown of world number 1 player. She was the most consistent, the most solid, the best defensive player of the moment, yet in two years of reign she hadn't won a single Grand Slam title, nor a Year  Ending Championship. Yes, she reached the final in both stages, but for many it wasn't enough to justify her ranking. Truth is that her gap against her contenders for the ranking had always been quite big and for most of her supporters it would have been a matter of time before she would finally win her maiden slam.
Now, two years later, she's barely holding into top 10 thanks to a couple of good runs in big tournaments like Moscow and Indian Wells, but her slam record sums up her past 365 days with 5 wins out of 4 slams and two round 1 losses in Wimbledon and New York.
Few days away from Roland Garros, historically her worst slam, she hasn't won a single match on red clay and only one green clay (against the mediocre Soler Espinosa), which sets her on a 5 matches losing streak, where most of them came in an almost unexplainable fashion.

Caroline has been known for years for her mental strenght, whenever she wasn't the most talented player on court, she used to be the toughest to beat, because you could never count on her help: rock solid with her groundstrokes, athletically the best she would never let a ball get past her, which gave her the nick-names of "the Wall" or "Wall-zniacki", she wasn't killing her opponents with winners, but whenever she had a chance she was stepping in with her Backhand and the combination of all those took her where she was.
Nowadays she looks confused on court, she does not even move as good and her defence lands often short, mostly off her Forehand. The confusion came probably from the several awkward attempts of side-coaches that lasted too few to be helpful and the pressure of the media that wanted her to be more aggressive, but that led her to the clumsy position in which she can't outhit her opponents, nor has the variety to confuse them, nor can defend as effective as before. One could tell something was not as steady as it used to be, since her service motion drastically changed thrice in the past year and a half and her string tension keep going up and down like a rollercoaster.
But it is not her technique, nor her fitness the most worrisome aspect of her game, it's her mentality indeed: out of her last 5 losses only two were brutal for the score (the one with Zheng this week and the one with Shvedova in Madrid), but the other 3 came in matches she was leading and looked in control of them. Against Voegele she was comfortably sailing in the first set and in the third she had a great advantage and again the same happened against Jovanovski in Rome. In the latter case she played some great tennis in the first set and never looked in trouble against the Serb, then suddenly she started to hit shorter and miss shots she had no business missing, but noticeably her attitude was exactly the same as before, she just looked spent as if she couldn't care less, as if she didn't want to be there, on court, fighting for that win.
The same impression of mine is confirmed by mental coach Erik Østenkjær, who said the followings to Danish media not long ago:

"She seems mentally confused, and oscillates between a high top level and a bottom level as low as hell. This is made to raise her bottom level, top level is basically excellent. [...] When you look at her behavior, you can read how she's doing. She has many ways to go, depending on how the fight goes to her, her shoulders hanging, and her style is more leave if she is losing. Previously, her posture alike, she seemed more confident and determined. [...]
It's a vicious circle, she has come in. Self-confidence is the key word, Caroline must dare a little more and show sharpness when she has the chance. Of course there must sneak something into doubt after such a shoal of defeat. And when that happens, then there is more than one opponent on the field. I wish there were a few tools that you could use the top floor so she could re-enter it to win rhythm."

The real bombshell came not many hours ago anyway, when Piotr, Caroline's dad and ever-lasting coach, in a press conference announced to have come to the decision to leave professional coaching and so Caroline to the hands of a new long term and full time coach. Differently from what happened so far it won't be just a "spin-off" with Piotr staying next and having the last word:
"We are looking for someone who can be with her ​​for the rest of her career and not just half a year, because it is bad and destroys much. [...] We want someone who can be with her the rest of her career and not just for a half year, because that's no good and wrecks things. Caroline's old enough to make her own decisions, even if it's not easy, because she has to find someone who understands her game and personality. She'll never play like Serena Williams. Every player has has a different understanding of the game, technique and strengths, and now we've found the two we believe in, and we hope to make a decision soon."

There are no names at the moment, even though a few coaches and former players have already stated a few times how they would like to work with Caroline and Chris Evert immediately comes to my mind, but only time will tell who is ready to take on such a complicate call and if she or he would be able to at least get Caroline back to her former self, if not further and finally make her win the first slam. It looks like a very long road and a damn steep one too, but Caroline in the past showed to be a great fighter and a hard worker, so maybe a change in her coaching will give her new motivations and a breath of fresh air help her confidence too.
It doesn't even sound like science fiction the chance that she might skip the grass season in order to work with that new coach and be ready for her beloved Hard Court American summer, after all she has no points to defend there after last year's Wimbledon loss to Paszek in Round 1 and it is no secret that out of all surfaces, Grass is only a little more suitable than clay for the Dane's game. What's sure is that in a few days she's facing British youngster Laura Robson in the first round of Roland Garros and it won't be easy for Caroline to interrupt the losing streak, but could we say it is easy against any other player on tour given what's going on with her at the moment?

A few comments from Rome early days (day 2)

Tuesday May 14th

B Jovanovski (SRB) b. [10] C Wozniacki (DEN) 26 64 76(5)

Thee very first match of the day was played in perfect conditions, sun was shining bright in Rome, temperature was warm, but yet not so hot and differently from the day before, wind wasn't much of a deal and immediately the stands were packed with fans cheering for the former world number 1.
Contrary to the latest matches, Caroline started pretty convincingly, hitting deep and being solid from baseline, taking advantage of the short balls coming from Jovanovski every time she was forced to run after Caroline's powerful accelerations with the backhand.
Moreover Bojana couldn't really find any depth with serve, nor taking advantage of the few mistakes of Caroline, so that in a very short lapse of time the Dane was 3-0 up with only one point lost and with no more difficulties went on winning the first set.
I was really impressed by Caroline's game in the first set to be honest, yet I could tell that there was something wrong with her, since she didn't look confident, nor willing to finish the job fast. In the second set she started bad and immediately found herself trailing in the score. She received a treatment to her ankle, but it seemed that the problems were others: she suddenly felt tight and her shots lost power and depth, even her running seemed less impressive and more balls started to get past her. On the other side of the net a lot of credits are due to Jovanovski, who suddenly started to believe in her chances and her errors diminished.

My impressions on Caroline will be better explained in another post, but the third set is the clear picture of what is going on with her: she started with a new burst of confidence and on the other side of the net Jovanovski injured her calf and started to move less and less. In a moment it was 4-1 for the Dane, who had chances to go 5-1 up, but a short miss with a Backhand down the line let Jovanovski back in the match, as much as in a few minutes it was all tied up 4 each. Caroline broke Jovanovski, but served in a pathetic fashion and got broken. Jovanovski held easily thanks to massive errors from the Dane, who then could hold for the tiebreak. There it was all on Caroline's racket again, since she was 5-1 up, but then the light switched off again and the misshit forehand that sent the ball on the stands clearly sums up the match that the shadow of the world number 1 had just lost.

 G Simon (FRA) b. [WC] F Volandri (ITA) 63 26 64

Because of Caroline's match I could watch only the last set of this match, which was really entertaining and characterized by an uncertain outcome.
The Italian, whose fame is mostly related to his dream run here in Rome a few springs ago, seemed to have found the game of those days back and with his class and unpredictable solutions was dictating points against the very solid French player, who on the other side of the net was trying to defend everything, waiting until he could step in with his favourite shot: the backhand down the line.
Volandri had several chances in every service game of Simon to break, the biggest one in the 6th game, when with two amazing drop shots he could gain 3 consecutive break points. The French player played smart then and let Volandri make bad decisions after super intensive rallies. Simon could hold and had chances to break in the next game, but Volandri  hold and yet again in the following service game went close to breaking Simon's serve, but once again the server could run away with an important hold.
This time the Italian couldn't serve as well as before and Simon could run away with the break and soon close a very high quality match. Despite the disappointment the crowd showed great sportsmanship by applauding very loudly the winner and the loser at the end of the match.




J Benneteau (FRA) b. [12] N Almagro (ESP) 76(2) 64

 I couldn't really watch much of this match, but the whole match can be summed up with Benneteau being solid and taking advantage of every chance given, while Almagro was dictating most of the rallies, but missing too many shots and often being ineffective while defending.

U Radwanska (POL) b. [15] A Ivanovic (SRB) 63 26 62

 I watched only a few games of this match from the stands of the Super Tennis arena during the break between the matches there, but I was impressed by Radwanska's game: Ivanovic didn't play bad at all in the match, but she couldn't really find a way out of her opponent's knot of flat, topspin and sliced balls. Urszula indeed never gave Ivanovic two balls alike in a row and the Serb couldn't find the right timing to be offensive for many shots in a row. The Polish on the other had was very solid with her defence, whose depth often was catching the Serb on the wrong foot and so turning the point around on her favor.
When in the second set the level of the younger Radwanska dropped you could see Ivanovic suddenly playing better, but it didn't last long, since in the third it was all on Urszula's racket and the score reflected it.

 [16] S Stephens (USA) b. [WC] F Pennetta (ITA) 63 63

Rematch of last year's second round it looked like a trick of the destiny, since the two players for different reasons are not the same: Stephens came to Rome with a brutal losing streak and overall a poor form that seemed to haunt her after the amazing run in Australia, when she reached her first slam semifinal, defeating Serena en route. Pennetta reached the Main Draw only thanks to a wild card, because in the past 8 months she had played only a could of tournaments, since an injury and the recovery from the surgery forced her out of the tour for long.
The Italian hadn't looked the same player since her comeback, but a few hints in Miami, Madrid and Marrakesh seemed to be enough to confident to see her playing well at home, against a player she had never lost to and that last year was severely schooled on those courts.
It wasn't so and the score looks much closer than the match actually was: Stephens's shots were accurate and quite powerful from the Forehand side, whilst her backhand was more solid than usual

and the loopy trajectories created with it often forced Flavia to step back and lose control of the rally.
In all honesty Stephens's game didn't impress me as much as Flavia's non-game did. The Italian, known for her ability to re-use opponents' power to create winners, looked spent and slow, her groundstrokes shaky and never accurate, so that she never really bothered Stephens. The only burst of pride came when the match was close to be over, when she let her racket go full speed and rage hit the shots, she saved several Match points 5-1 down, one of them with an incredible lob on the run, almost hit behind her back out of a powerful smash from the American. Despite it all, the Italian couldn't keep the momentum going and in bad service game she was broken and the match went deservedly to the American youngster.

 [Q] S Halep (ROU) b. [4] A Radwanska (POL) 67(2) 61 62


By far the best match I watched in my two days in Rome. The two played some amazing quality tennis, playing fire with fire both of them played the same tactic made of tricky slices and sudden

accelerations, well hidden drop shots and spectacular volleys.
I reached the super tennis arena just in time for the first set tie-break and there the merits of Aga Radwanska were the ones of looking like an unbreakable wall, Simona tried her best to hit through her, but ended up overhitting a couple of shots and the set ended quickly in favor of the Polish.
Contrary to my expectations Halep came back on court for the second set even more motivated and didn't let the wasted chance bring her down. She started well, serving solid first serves and returning deep or using sharp angles: soon Radwanska looked caught in her own trap, since Halep

was playing the same tennis of hers, just better. Aga suddenly couldn't close points on her down-the-line shots because Halep was always there to hit the ball back and often with power and accuracy, the Polish drop shots had the same fate, since not a single one hit the Romanian side twice before Halep was there and her solutions from there were high class too since once she was passing Radwanska with a sliced FH down the line, once with a sharp counter-drop or forced her to uncomfortable volleys.
Agnieska lost the plot and Simona could sense it. Her hesultation after the first set was full of charged emotion and not even the toilet break Radwanska took could break the momentum: Aga tried all her best to keep close in the score, but after a couple of games it was clear that Halep was simply too good for her. Nonetheless the world number 4 kept fighting until the very last point, which kept the tension and the quality of the set on an amazing level of intensity broken only by the last winner which gave the victory to Simona Halep, the biggest of her career.

  

A few comments from Rome early days (day 1)

Monday May 13th

[WC] N Burnett (ITA) b. A Cornet (FRA) 62 62

I could watch only the last few games because of an enormous crowd at the ticket office and a bug in the system which was slowing down the whole process. 

Anyway Cornet looked very far from focused and the low crowd all behind the local rising player didn't help her finding the calm to limit Burnett's firepower and force her to hit a lot of balls before winning the point. 
It wasn't so, Nastassja had much of an easy day, all her shots were working well and she was solid with both forehand and backhand, dictating the pace of the rally and so being always on the lead.
The Italian had no problem closing the match, despite playing a bad game on 5-1 on Cornet's serve, she served well on the next game and closed under a waterfall of clapping.

[Q] G Muguruza (ESP) b. [Q] M Johansson (FRA) 16 60 62

I was able to follow this match because court 1 and two share parts of the stands and so while watching Oudin's match, I could spy the next court and enjoy some rallies.
In the first set what one might have expected to happen seemed indeed to happen, but in a completely unexpected way. What do I mean? Well, Johansson was playing the exact match I expected Muguruza to, she served and raturned hard and deep, dictating the rallies with powerful shots, forcing Garbine to run and hit out of her comfort zone. I have to admit I was really surprised by the power and accuracy of Johansson, who had no problems in taking a first set lead of 5-0, while the Spanish youngster looked tight and lost on court.

Something changed in the last games of the set, Johansson slowed down her shots and from then on she barely ever could trouble the Spanish, who started to gain confidence and could rely on a lot more errors coming from her opponent. But if the first set could still somehow end in the French player's favor, the second set was as fast as the first, but the other way round. 
Suddenly it was Muguruza looking flawless and Johansson lost and the rage that soon took control of the French player didn't help her out of the hole, rather killed her last chances to win the match. 
Garbine now could count on much easier balls to attack and most of the times Johansson tried to be more aggressive she ended up missing. On 2-0 down in the third Mathilde tried a desperate attempt to get back, but the close game lost definitely killed her last chances.

[Q] M Oudin (USA) b. E Makarova (RUS) 26 75 4-2 rit.

By far one of the most interesting matches I was witnessed to watch. The two girls played some spectacular tennis all through the match and the quite big crowd watching totally enjoyed it.

I reached the court to see Makarova serving for the first set 5-2 up, but you could tell that she wasn't in complete control of the match. The great form showed in Madrid just few days before was still there, but the slower conditions weren't helping her, while on the other hand Oudin looked the best I've ever seen her on the dirt. Melanie was running much and retrieving many balls back with depth and often with power, so that Makarova could hardly ever charge for easy shots at the net.
Serving for the set Makarova found herself down of two break points after a couple of great defensive shots of the American that found the Russian out of position. Nonetheless Makarova could find a streak of great shots and with a big winner and loud scream she closed to set at her very first chance.
The first games of the second set seemed to lead towards an easy match for the Russian as Oudin looked little tired and frustrated too, after the missed chance to re-open the set. Her balls were too mild and Makarova couldn't ask for anything better, she stepped inside the court and hit many winners to take the lead.
Then suddenly Oudin found that spark of pride that took her far in her best days and with courage and

humility started to make Makarova feel her presence on court: her ball suddenly found power and depth, there was no ball too far to be reached or too powerful to be handled. With two impressive backhand winners in a row she could get the break back and from 2-2 the match found an incredible new quality and intensity.
Both girls wanted badly to win and you could tell by the screams and grunts, the efforts and the "come on's" on winners that made the crowd go wild. Makarova started to look tight and called the trainer on court complaining about all the balls that was defending, but the trainer didn't sort the effect she hoped for as she got broken and Oudin could serve for the second set.
Melanie was a little unlucky then, as she took the initiative and three times in a row she missed backhands that would have been winners and after having wasted 3 set points she was back to tie on 5 games each.
The wasted chance could have hurt her mentally, but she could see Makarova feeling insecure and instead of surrendering, she kept being aggressive and mixing up her game with deadly slices. The combination often took Makarova out of her comfort zone and many times Oudin found the space for a winner, that happened on 6-5 up as with two outstanding winners she closed the set.
The burst of power used to close the set probably took its toll on the American that again started the set below her level, so that Makarova could take a 2 games lead, but once more Melanie fought back and by exploiting her winning tactic to the best, she suddenly re-found the form of the late second set and won four games in row, while Ekaterina seemed to grow tired of fighting and running for every point.
On 4-2 Oudin went to serve, when Makarova called for the physiotherapist, she didn't seem particularly on pain, but the tiring week of Madrid and the 2 hours on court against Oudin probably took their toll on her shoulder and she preferred to retire instead of getting injured before the French Open, mostly because she seemed in no position to win at this point.
It felt like a great win even for the American, who needed this one for her motivation and she looked overjoyed while signing autographs at the end.


J Jankovic (SRB) b. T Pironkova (BUL) 63 60

I could watch this match only from the middle of the first set, but there wasn't much to be said about it. Jelena looked a little rusty at the very beginning and couldn't find the time off the weird shots of Pironkova, who tried to mix her game with spin and slices, but soon started to be too inconsistent to trouble Jankovic. The Serb on the other hand, once she could find the right timing had no problem closing the match and giving no hope to the Bulgarian, who seemed to accept her destiny and soon gave up fighting.


[Q] S Halep (ROU) b. S Kuznetsova (RUS) 61 61   



Probably the biggest surprise of the day and a really pleasant one. Svetlana didn't play bad at all, but Halep looked the best I've ever seen her playing, being really consistent and yet able to be aggressive and hit winners whenever she had the chance.

Kuznetsova didn't enjoy a good service day, but soon she had to ask too much out of it, since Simona was stepping inside the court from the return and winning almost every rally. Svetlana's serve stats then obviously started to get worse as her risks grew higher, while on the other side of the net Halep had no problems with her own serve, beind solid and hitting even a few winners with that shot, which is probably her "worst" weapon.
The Romanian looked very comfortable on the Italian clay and moved smoothly on every ball threw by the Russian, who on the other hand was struggling to read her opponents shots and was often caught on the wrong feet and "dropshotted" many times.
By leaning on Sveta's shots, Halep often found great accelerations and in no time the match was over on her favor with a double 6-1.


K Bertens (NED) b. F Schiavone (ITA) 76(5) 61

The first match of the night session was featuring two players with a great gap age-wise, since Italian only slam champion Francesca Schiavone is 11 years older than the Dutch player. Sadly for her and the home crowd, experience wasn' enough for her to get through this match, despite her will and pride, Schiavone never really looked in control of the match and her game was not enjoying a good day.
Despite coming from the victory in Marrakesh, Schiavone looked as if she had problems adjusting to the court's speed and bounces, but at first it was not that clear, since Kiki was missing too much as she gifted away at least 10 of the first 15 points with errors.
The Italian couldn't capitalise the advantage and soon got broken back and drawn to a set where every point needed to be fought for, even though the quality wasn't often involved in the making.
Only a tie-break could close this first set and Bertens played slightly better there, while Schiavone was too inconsistent and in the end had to surrender to Bertens's powerful strokes 7 points to 5.
Everything happened really fast from then onwards, Bertens finally looked steady and whether in the first set she gifted many points with silly errors, in the second she didn't allow any of that to happen, whilst Schiavone completely lost the plot and in the end couldn't really do much to prevent Bertens from winning it.

[16] K Nishikori (JPN) b. [WC] P Lorenzi (ITA) 62 64 

Coming from a good week in Madrid, where he defeated Roger Federer en-route, Kei Nishikori probably had not much time to adjust to Rome's different courts and you could see that from the first points against Local Wild Card Lorenzi. The cold night had slowed down the courts and the Japanese struggled to produce winners as easily as in Madrid, but that didn't hurt the gap between the two players. Despite looking a little rusty and often missing shots that he shouldn't have, Nishikori never really seemed on the edge of suffering an upset, mostly because Lorenzi's only shots able to worry him were the serve and the dropshot, but the first inevitably started to suffer smaller percentages, once he tried to serve more aces, whilst the second was very hard to be tried on the heavy and deep balls of Kei. Had to leave at the end of the first set.