Caroline Wozniacki

Caroline Wozniacki, born 11 July 1990 is a Danish professional tennis player. She is a former world no. 1 on the WTA Tour. As of 23 January 2012, she held this position for 67 weeks. She is the first Scandinavian woman 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 both 2010 and 2011. She has won 18 WTA singles titles as of August 2011, three in 2008, three in 2009, six in 2010 (the most since Justine Henin's ten in 2007), and six 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 title but has yet to win a women's Grand Slam title. She also holds two WTA titles in doubles.

The Australian Open was Wozniacki's first major as world no. 1. She lost to Li Na in the semifinals 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 to ensure her no. 1 position in the next rankings update. She went on to defeat Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final 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.
In the first Premier Mandatory event of the year in Indian Wells, Wozniacki made it to the final, where she defeated Marion Bartoli for her 14th singles title.
After a first-round bye at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Florida, Wozniacki lost in the fourth round to 21st seed Andrea Petkovic. Wozniacki made an uncharacteristic 52 unforced errors and later cited exhaustion as a factor in the loss.
In the Family Circle Cup, Wozniacki made it to the final, where she defeated unseeded Elena Vesnina to take her third title of the year, 15th of her career.
In Stuttgart, Wozniacki made it to her fifth final of the year, where she lost to Julia Görges in straight sets.
In Madrid, Wozniacki lost to Görges again, this time in the third round. In Rome, she lost to eventual champion Maria Sharapova in the semifinal round.
At the Brussels Open, Wozniacki reached the semifinals, where she defeated third seed and reigning French Open champion, Francesca Schiavone. In the final, Wozniacki's sixth of the year, she defeated eighth seed Peng Shuai to win her first red clay title, after having won three on the faster green clay.
Wozniacki was the top seed at the French Open, but was defeated in the third round by 28th seed Daniela Hantuchová.
Wozniacki's next tournament was the e-Boks Sony Ericsson Open in her native Denmark. In the final, she defeated fourth seed Lucie Šafářová, taking her fifth title of the year. At Wimbledon, she had straight-set wins until the fourth round, but then lost to 24th seed Dominika Cibulková.


Caroline Wozniacki accepting the winners trophy at the New Haven Open
At the Rogers Cup Wozniacki made an early second-round exit. She was defeated by Roberta Vinci in straight sets despite holding a 5–1 lead in the second set. Wozniacki was the top seed at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, but lost in the second round to world no. 76 Christina McHale. Next playing at the New Haven Open at Yale, Wozniacki won the title for the fourth year in a row, defeating Francesca Schiavone in the semifinals and qualifier Petra Cetkovská in the final.
At the US Open, Wozniacki was the first seed. In the first round, she defeated Nuria Llagostera Vives. In the second round, Wozniacki defeated Arantxa Rus,and in the third round, defeated American Vania King. In the fourth round, Wozniacki fought back from a 7–6, 4–1 deficit, defeating Svetlana Kuznetsova. Wozniacki then progressed to the semifinals by defeating Andrea Petkovic in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals she lost to Serena Williams.
In Tokyo Wozniacki lost to Kaia Kanepi in the third round. In Beijing she lost to Flavia Pennetta in the quarterfinals. This was Wozniacki's only loss in the 12 quarterfinals she reached in 2011.
Wozniacki was the top seed at the WTA Championships. In the group stage she beat Agnieszka Radwańska before falling to Vera Zvonareva. She lost also to Petra Kvitová in her final round-robin match and so she failed to advance to semifinals for the first time in three appearances. After the withdrawal of Maria Sharapova, Wozniacki was certain to finish the year as world no. 1 for the second consecutive year.

2012

Wozniacki began her season by representing Denmark at the 2012 Hopman Cup with Frederik Nielsen as her partner. Wozniacki won two of her three round robin matches in singles, defeating Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Tsvetana Pironkova before losing to the World No. 2 Petra Kvitová in three sets.
Wozniacki's next event was the 2012 Apia International Sydney. After a first round bye, Wozniacki defeated Dominika Cibulková (whom she had lost to in the same round of the event last year) in three sets after trailing 4–0 in the final set. She lost to World No. 8 Agnieszka Radwańska in three sets in the quarterfinals, after serving for the match at 5–4 up in the second set.
Wozniacki competed at the 2012 Australian Open as the top seed. Wozniacki defeated Anastasia Rodionova, Anna Tatishvili, Monica Niculescu and Jelena Janković all in straight sets to reach the quarterfinals where she lost to former World No. 1 Kim Clijsters. As a result Wozniacki lost her top ranking and was replaced by Victoria Azarenka. Next playing at Doha, Wozniacki lost to Lucie Safarova in the second round, having received a first round bye.
Wozniacki was the defending champion in Dubai and Indian Wells but failed to defend either title, losing to Julia Georges and Ana Ivanovic respectively. Following her loss at Indian Wells, Wozniacki fell out of the Top 5 for the first time since 2009.
Wozniacki was seeded fourth in Miami, and reached the semifinals by beating Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová, Petra Cetkovska, Yanina Wickmayer and Serena Williams, all in straight sets. Wozniacki was then beaten by second seed Maria Sharapova, 4–6, 6–2, 6–4. Wozniacki did not defend her title in Charleston as she was not allowed to participate under WTA rules because two Top-6 players had already entered the draw. Wozniacki then played at the tournament in her home town of Copenhagen. She defeated Urszula Radwanska, Pauline Parmentier, Alize Cornet, and Petra Martic. She lost her first match at the tournament losing to Angelique Kerber in the final 6–4 6–4.

Personal life

Wozniacki's best friend is her fellow Danish tennis player Malou Ejdesgaard, who has been her doubles partner in five tournaments. They are trying to gain entry to the 2012 Summer Olympics in doubles.
When 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 supporter. She wore a Liverpool shirt signed by footballer Steven Gerrard on court in the 2011 Qatar Ladies Open.
According to Forbes in 2011 she was the second highest earning female athlete in the world.
According to the June 2011 edition of SportsPro Wozniacki is the world's ninth most marketable athlete.
She is currently dating professional golfer Rory McIlroy.

Early life

Wozniacki is the daughter of Polish Roman Catholic[8] immigrants, Piotr and Anna Wozniacki. Anna played on the Polish women's national volleyball team, and Piotr played professional football. The couple moved to Denmark when Piotr signed for the Danish football club Boldklubben 1909. Wozniacki's older brother Patrik Wozniacki is a professional footballer for Hvidovre IF in Denmark.

Playing style

Wozniacki's playing style centers "around the defensive aspects of tennis with her anticipation, movement, agility, footwork and defence all first-rate and key parts of her game. Her two-handed backhand is one of her best weapons as she is capable of turning defense into offense, most notably the backhand down-the-line. Her defensive playing style has her contemporaries label her a counter-puncher.

Sponsors

In 2009, Wozniacki signed on to become an endorser for the line of tennis apparel designed by Stella McCartney for adidas. She wore her first adidas by Stella McCartney tennis dress at the 2009 US Open She also has sponsorship agreements with Compeed, Danske Invest, Oriflame, Turkish Airlines, Proactiv, Sony Ericsson, Yonex and e-Boks.