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Wozniacki leaves behind White House memories to halt slide
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 [January 17, 2017]
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Since her
invites to the White House are likely to dry up once outgoing U.S.
President Barack Obama vacates the premises this week, Caroline
Wozniacki was relieved to snap her backward sliding run at the
Australian Open on Tuesday.
After tweeting a picture of herself with Obama with the message
"Thank you Mr President!... I'll miss playing tennis with you at the
White House", the former world number one was relieved that she
finally bucked a worrying trend at the Australian Open.
Since reaching the Australian Open semi-finals in 2011, Wozniacki
had fallen one round earlier in each subsequent visit to Melbourne
Park - which meant her journey to this season's opening grand slam
was full of trepidation.
"My trend has been semis, quarters, fourth, third, second, first
round, and then, according to my trend, I should have
been in the third-round quallies (this year)," the bubbly Dane,
whose ranking has slipped to 20th, quipped on Tuesday following her
6-1 6-2 first-round rout of local hope Arina Rodionova.
"Thankfully that did not happen and I'm going the right direction."
The 26-year-old had been tipped as a future grand slam champion when
she reached the U.S. Open final as a teenager in 2009.
But despite reaching the ranking summit a year later, Wozniacki
remains a bona fide member of a WTA club which boasts only two other
members -- players who failed to win a major despite being ranked
world number one.
Breaking free from that club -- which also includes Russia's Dinara
Safina and Serbia's Jelena Jankovic -- remains the number one goal
for Wozniacki.
[to top of second column] |
Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki celebrates after winning her Women's
singles first round match against Australia's Arina Rodionova.
REUTERS/Edgar Su
"Lifting trophies and competing is what I love," said Wozniacki, who
completed the New York City marathon just a few weeks after
finishing runner-up at the U.S. Open in 2014.
"Obviously, training, you've hit a million balls over my life.
"But I think the competing is what drives me. I love to win, so...
That's what I train for."
(Reporting by Pritha Sarkar, editing by Amlan Chakraborty)
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