Cover girl Wozniacki airbrushed out of Wimbledon
Cover girl Wozniacki airbrushed out of Wimbledon
Caroline Wozniacki started the year on top of the world
rankings and as the glamorous cover girl of women's tennis but on
Wednesday a humiliating first-round defeat at Wimbledon completed her
fall from grace.
A smouldering image of the Dane, dressed in black and
with her blonde mane flying around her face, is plastered across the
cover of this year's WTA guide with the strap line "Strong is
Beautiful".
It is an honour she earned for finishing 2011 as the
world's best women's player but on Wednesday, the ugly mistakes in her
game could not be airbrushed away as she suffered her earliest loss at
Wimbledon when she was humbled 5-7 7-6 6-4 by Tamira Paszek.
To add to her woes, seventh seed Wozniacki should have
wrapped up the match in straight sets as she had two match points at 6-5
in the second, only to see the Austrian go for broke with some
daredevil shots.
Paszek saved one with a forehand that grazed the
baseline and then clipped the sideline on the second with a vicious
backhand.
The 21-year-old Pazek, who could have represented a
number of countries as her parents have links to Tanzania, Kenya, Canada
and Chile, left Wozniacki all tongue-tied and befuddled in the third
set as the Dane ran out of ideas and bowed out after three hours 12
minutes.
"(It) really sucks when you lose. Especially after
having two match points and not taking them. It wasn't because I played
badly. She just went for it, and that's it," a rather tetchy Wozniacki,
who has yet to win one of the four majors, told reporters.
"I just need to move forward. You can't dwell in your past but move forward, look forward. That's it."
Asked what her plans were for moving forward, she replied: "To be honest, I haven't really thought about it."
While Pazek proved that her win at Eastbourne at the
weekend was no fluke, Wozniacki was left to ponder yet another flop show
as she has now gone 10 months without a title.
During that time, she has launched a women's underwear
range and jetted around the world with her boyfriend Rory McIlroy, the
2011 U.S. Open golf champion.
If she was hoping to get tips from McIlroy on how to
bounce back, she is unlikely to get much help as he has missed four cuts
in his last five events and has also lost his own top ranking.
At least they will have common topics to talk about over their next romantic dinner date.
