Caroline Wozniacki is still the world No.1. Admittedly, Anna Tatishvili, one of Georgia’s few and far between tennis players, was not expected to put up much of a fight. But such is the swirl of speculation surrounding the world No.1 that it’s almost a done deal that she will not end this tournament still in the top spot.
Playing in the eye of the mid-afternoon heat, the pair helpfully wearing almost identical adidas outfits, Wozniacki held her place on the baseline like a squash player on the T, scuttling from side to side, but with forward motion as well. Throughout the first set there was a punch to her shots that her critics have been asking for for so long. The influence of new coach Ricardo Sanchez, perhaps?
Her serve was particularly telling in the 6-1 7-6 victory. She pounded 60 per cent of her first serves in and when they found their mark, she never lost a point.
“I felt a little bit like John Isner out there,” she laughed. “The wind or sun didn’t disturb, and I could throw it up and hit it. I went for it a few times and made a few aces, which was great.”
In fact, it was all going spectacularly well. Until the fourth game of the second set, when as if from nowhere, the Georgian suddenly broke serve. Accelerating to a 4-1 lead, the Dane appeared to retreat into herself, reverting to the type of defensive, get-everything-back tennis that has got her so far but not quite far enough.
Exchanging breaks one after the other, Wozniacki called a medical timeout to have her purple-painted left big toe strapped up, before finally getting things back on serve at 5-5. Torture? Yes.
It continued into a tiebreak. With Tatashvili rocketing bombs from the back of the court, Wozniacki just about scrambling on the end of each one, it’s no wonder she’d needed her toe strapped with all that running.
Trying desperately to stamp her authority the way she had in the first set, Wozniacki moved a mini-break up in the breaker. But Tatashvili, playing with the fearlessness of one who knows she can out-hit her opponent, pelted another winner.
In the end, it was not quite enough. Serving at match point, Wozniacki produced two deep backhands, clenched her fist, and progressed.
“I pulled through,” she admitted. “I thought the first set I played pretty well. I stayed aggressive and made her run. Second set she went a bit more for her shots, and I stepped back a little bit and she punished me for that.”
Thus, the two sets of second-round tennis summed up exactly Wozniacki’s predicament. Lights-out aggressive execution for a set, followed by scrambled defence the way only she can for a set.
“If you have long rallies, you need to think, am I fitter than my opponent? Can I stay out here and grind it out for three, four hours or do I need to finish it off quicker? Sometimes it depends on the opponent, as well, and on yourself. Sometimes the opponents don’t let you play the way you want to. Then you need to change to Plan B.
“I usually believe I can stay out there the longest. I believe that I can be out there forever if I have to.”
Today’s match was certainly not forever, and it ended in a straight sets win. But there’s always the feeling that next time, she might not be so lucky.
And she knows it, too, heading straight out after her match to hit some more balls. The extra practice sessions may have meant she was almost forced to come to press in a towel, having lost her bag somewhere along the way. But it shows, as a world No.1 should show, that she’s not taking anything for granted.
Bet & Watch on the Australian Open live online at bet365 > Live Streaming Tennis