(May 14, 2013) -- Very few would describe
Caroline Wozniacki as a contender for the French Open title. It is no big secret that the clay court swing is where the former No. 1 tends to struggle the most during each season. But with her opening round loss today at the Italian Open, her third straight in as many tournaments and her fifth of the year, struggle doesn't seem like the right word to describe Wozniacki's woes of late.
Today, Wozniacki's loss to Serbia's
Bojana Jovanovski must have stung a little more considering that Jovanovski entered Rome on an eight match losing streak since her last win in Melbourne back in January.
To add proverbial salt onto the wound, Wozniacki held a 4-0 lead in the third set against her opponent who was suffering both from a thigh injury and cramps. Jovanovski refused to wilt though and even when she found herself down 2-5 in the final set tiebreak Jovanovski climbed back to win 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(5).
This loss from Wozniacki continues her losing streak that stretches back to Charleston when she was seemingly in control of her quarterfinal match against
Stefanie Voegele before Voegele came back to win in three sets. Then there was a loss in the opening round of Stuttgart to
Carla Suarez Navarro and then last week in Madrid to
Yaroslava Shvedova. Not exactly the way to inspire any sort of confidence for Wozniacki before heading into the biggest clay court event of them all in a few weeks.
Plenty of fans might say, "It's to be expected. Wozniacki's not that great on clay." Well she may not be great, but she's not exactly been horrible in her career either. Wozniacki reached the quarters of Roland Garros back in 2010 and she owns a couple of clay court titles. But this current mini-slump may have more to do with Wozniacki's progress as a player, more so than just a string of unexpected losses.
Wozniacki's attempts, albeit brief, to bring in new coaching advice in lieu of her father, Piotr Wozniacki, and his constant presence over the years have apparently come to an end and unlikely to ever be resurrected. Back in Charleston, Wozniacki said that she enjoyed having her father coach her and fully expected that he would remain her coach through the end of her career.
If he does stay on for that long is still unclear, but what is clear in the short term is that whatever changes others tried to add to Wozniacki's game have been abandoned. Most notable is her service stance that, for a while, had her plant her back foot well behind her before she threw up the toss. Now she's starting off at a more neutral position when she serves perhaps because she feels more comfortable with that. In any event, if Wozniacki's losses continue, especially through her favorite summer hard court season, it would still be very surprising to see a new member added to her coaching team as she and her father appear content to work things out on their own.
While not being a huge factor in the clay court season isn't surprising, the fact that Wozniacki has only been to one final (Indian Wells) and one semi (Dubai) should be concerning to her along with some pretty bad losses this season. (Remember Kuala Lumpur where she got dumped out in the opening round by World No. 186
Qiang Wang?) Or maybe it isn't? Perhaps her continued romance with top golfer Rory Mcllory is helping her keep her losses in perspective. Or maybe she's been on the tour long enough to figure her good days will come again? Whatever the case, Wozniacki's continuing lack of real relevance this year, aside from Indian Wells, is something that she has to figure out if she wants to stay in the top ten, let alone try and make a push back into the top five or higher.
We won't know until Paris if her brief appearances at the lead up clay court events so far are just a blip or the early signs of bigger problems for Wozniacki. But if she wants any chance to possibly get back to number one, she's gonna have to start finding better ways to get out of round one first.