Caroline Wozniacki is one of the most popular female players on the Tour. She is currently ranked number one in the world (March 2011). Let’s take a look at her Biography and break down her game in detail!
Biography
Caroline was born 1990 in Denmark. In 2010 she became the first player from Denmark to reach the World Number 1 ranking!
Wozniacki, like so many other pro tennis players,
grew up in a sports family!
Her father is a former professional soccer player and her brother plays professional soccer as well. She was a very successful junior player, winning the prestigious Orange Bowl in 2005!
So far she has already had a very successful professional career, winning 14 WTA tournaments and reaching the number 1 ranking.
Compared to her ranking, she has not had great success in the majors yet though. Her best result so far is the US Open 2009 finals.
Game Analysis
Wozniacki is a very consistent player. She is known to hit very few unforced errors and is an exceptional athlete!
Movement and Consistency are Caroline’s biggest strengths!
This game style is very exhausting though and possibly could be a reason why she has not had great success in the Grand Slams yet. In those tournaments you have to win many tough matches in a row!
So let’s have a look at her game in the context of the four areas of Tennis!
1. Technical
Forehand
Caroline does not have a very good forehand. She can hit solid consistent shots with it but she cannot put a lot of pressure on opponents with this shot!
She does get the racket head underneath the ball well and also swings with an inside-out pattern. These factors explain why she can hit with a lot of consistency on this side.
Like most women she uses a rather modest semi-western grip allowing her to hit with enough spin and also to flatten out the shot whenever necessary.
Her loop gets a bit too big at times though and therefore she struggles with fast balls into her forehand and generally hits quite a few balls a bit late. Another problem with this bigger loop is that you can loose your balance at times.
One big problem with her forehand is the fact that she lays the wrist back way too early in the swing and does not make proper use of the stretch-shortening cycle!
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Backhand
Caroline’s backhand is probably her strongest shot!
Again she has a great high-low-high and inside-out swing pattern like all the other top professional players! Her swing is short and compact and she has great balance with this stroke. She can pretty much hit the ball wherever she wants whenever she wants. Quite often her backhand down the line really surprises opponents! This makes her backhand a major weapon!
Slice
Caroline does not hit many slice backhands. The main reason is probably that she has great confidence in her two-hander. I was not able to really find any videos of her hitting many slice backhands therefore I will not start guessing about her technique here.
Volleys
Caroline does not like to come up to the net very much. Again it was tough to even find videos of her hitting volleys! She usually hits two-handed backhand volleys. She manages to put easy balls away but is certainly no great net player
Serve
Caroline has a solid serve. She can get some free points with it and generally start the point off well.
She gets a few key body positions right but she also misses a few. When you watch her serve you can notice that she has a slight stop in her motion. The racket comes to a complete stop. A fluid continuous motion is one of the key characteristics for great servers and I believe Wozniacki could improve her serve by changing this.
Can you see how she has a slight stop in her motion ?
Another thing that she could improve upon is the separation angle of her hips and shoulders.
Great servers rotate the shoulders more than the hips. Wozniacki does not get into this key body position.
Caroline also does quite a few things well on her serve though. She gets good pronation with the side of her racket moving towards the ball until just before contact when she pronates the forearm. Also she does not open her upper body up too early which is the problem of so many female servers!
Overall a solid but not great service motion!
2. Tactical
Caroline Wozniacki is a very smart player on the tennis court.
Her strategy and tactics are based on her strengths which are consistency and movement.
She has variety in her game, mixing in high shots as well as cross-court angles. Also she is extremely good at neutralizing from defensive positions.
One of her weaknesses is that she gets too defensive too often.
I believe that this dates back from her junior years. Caroline was a very successful junior. In Junior Tennis you usually win matches by not missing and running down a whole lot of shots. What happens though is that this type of game plan then becomes engrained in your brain and it becomes extremely difficult to change it later on!
She is used to winning by playing it safe in important situations but in the pro game that does not work as much anymore!
All of a sudden you are up against players that will play the big points even more aggressive and with confidence and I believe that this is what happens to Wozniacki in the Grand Slams. She has to beat players like Serena Williams when they are at their best and this is very difficult with a defensive game plan!
So in order to play better she should work on being more aggressive in certain situations and taking balls earlier!
3. Physical
Caroline Wozniacki is a superb athlete. Like most players that have reached the world number one ranking, she is a phenomenal mover around the tennis court.
She displays all of the important characteristics
a tennis athlete should have!
Wozniacki is explosive, allowing her to get in and out of the corners of the tennis court very well. Also she has great hand-eye coordination and her phenomenal balance might be her greatest strength on the physical side!
Overall Caroline Wozniacki is one of the best athletes out there and with this type of athleticism you can be certain that she is one of the hardest workers on the women?s professional tour!
4. Mental
Mental toughness and physical toughness are often related. Players that don’t miss very much and fight for every ball are usually mentally tough. Caroline is one of those players in my opinion.
She is a true fighter and never gives up any balls. She can also pump herself up at times to boost up confidence after winning an important point.
Ranking
Caroline Wozniacki is one of those players that are really solid in all areas which makes it tough to rank her. I would rank Caroline Wozniacki’s game in the following order:
1. Physical
2. Mental
3. Tactical
4. Technical
Coaching Recommendation
The main thing I would work on with Caroline is to
get her to play more aggressive!
For her to beat the best players in the world when they are in their best form, she has no choice but to be more aggressive.
In women’s Tennis it is extremely important to hit aggressive shots down the line because the women have a really hard time covering those shots.
Most of the time, it is the player that first hits a strong down the line shot that wins the point!
Caroline can hit her backhand down the line quiet aggressive but not so much her forehand. So I would work with her on flattening out that forehand and taking the ball down the line in the right situations. This would of course result in more opportunities to come in and finish points at the net.
Additionally, I believe she could improve her serve with some technical work. Getting rid of the minimal stop in her motion as well as adding some more shoulder turn should help her a lot!
