Australian Open: Caroline Wozniacki defeats grand slam demons

Caroline Wozniacki left Rod Laver Arena a grand slam winner for the first time, she paused to enjoy the sweetest of serenades.

Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki arrives in a gondola with the Australian Open trophy for a photocall at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Melbourne yesterday. Picture: AFP

As Caroline Wozniacki left Rod Laver Arena a grand slam winner for the first time, she paused briefly to enjoy the sweetest of serenades.

The post-match fanfare seemed to have taken almost as long as the thrilling final set of her 7-6 (2) 3-6 6-4 win over Simona Halep on Saturday night.

Both women had delivered heartfelt, eloquent speeches.

Then Wozniacki posed, with “Daphne”, the Daphne Akhurst trophy, for a ten-deep throng of photographers bellowing instructions at her.

“Up the back, Caroline,” one Aussie voice barked. “Kiss the ­trophy, will you?” a Brit pleaded.

As the scale of her achievement set in, there was one last delight for the Dane.

Scarcely a fan had left the arena when the Neil Diamond hit Sweet Caroline started piping through the loudspeakers.

It conjured the atmosphere one might experience at Fenway Park for a Boston Red Sox game when it is belted out before the bottom of the eighth inning.

Wozniacki simply described this moment of glory as “so good, so good, so good!”

The demands following the greatest moment of a champion’s life are intense.

As she walked through the ­corridors of Melbourne Park, the 27-year-old was patted on the back by several people.

Among them was Darren ­Cahill, the Australian coach of the incredibly game Halep, who ­offered the victor a congratulatory hug at a time when his heart must have been hurting.

Billie Jean King welcomed Wozniacki to the “grand slam club” during the presentation.

Chris Evert and Mats Wilander added similar plaudits not long after when Wozniacki entered the television studios for interviews on a night of seemingly endless media duties.

Rod Laver was among those to tweet congratulations, so too Wozniacki’s close friend Serena Williams. The Dane still had dozens of messages from friends and family she was yet to read when she sat down for a roundtable with reporters at about 1.15am, the ­trophy still firmly in her grasp.

“There has been a lot going on right now. I have no idea what is happening in the outside world right now,” she said. “I just know I am holding Daphne and she is very special. “Right now, I am just so happy to reach back, to get it back, to be a grand slam champion. I really haven’t thought about the future at all. I just want to stay in this moment.”

Wozniacki was still in the ­vicinity of Melbourne Park at 2am. Her only plans? To eat some ­dessert as a reward.

During a final obligation, when ­interviewed outside in Garden Square for the tournament’s live Facebook site, even a possum dropped by to wish Wozniacki well, which left the champ a little frazzled.

A few hours later she was back for a photo shoot on the Yarra River aboard a boat called Victoria. Her next stop, technically, is a tournament in St Petersburg, ­almost 15,000km away, beginning today.

Halep, on the other hand, ­immediately after her loss said she would be withdrawing, which is scarcely surprising given the ­battering her body has taken over the past fortnight.

For Wozniacki, the magnitude of the win is still settling in. “I am just so happy to have this trophy with me right now and I haven’t thought any further.

“It is a lot to take in and, as ­athletes, we don’t enjoy the ­moments for too long. And I really want to enjoy this moment, ­because it is really special for me.

“Not only am I a grand slam champion, and it seems crazy to say that, but I am also back to world No 1.

“I couldn’t have scripted that any better and I am very proud of the way I fought to be here.”

Asked to describe the six years between the time she was last on top of the world, at least in terms of ranking, and her Australian Open triumph, the right-hander said “life sometimes throws curveballs at you”.

Wozniacki has dealt for years with an unwanted burden, namely being good enough to hold the top ranking — for 67 weeks in ­succession — without winning a grand slam tournament.

In one sense, such a statistic detracts from just how brilliant her career has been, and which includes 27 titles, an end of season championship in Singapore last October and two grand slam final appearances. But she no longer has that worry, noting that proving her critics wrong was particularly ­satisfying.

“I’ve gotten this question a ­million times or a hundred thousand times and it’s really nice to prove people wrong, that doubted me, and it’s really nice not to have to answer the no grand slam question ever again and now finally I have the world No 1 and a grand slam title. It’s very special.”

It has not been the easiest of paths. The two US Open final ­losses to Kim Clijsters and Serena Williams were scarcely a disgrace given their calibre, but they made her doubt.

Injuries and illness through 2015 and 2016 forced a slide to a ranking of 74, which is staggering for a fine player. And during this time she was forced to fend off queries about the presence of her father Piotr, who was always in the frame even when she was working with other coaches.

Wozniacki, by virtue of her precociousness as a player, was forced to grow up quickly. Her father spoke only Polish and Russian, so it was she who was contacting tournament directors, hotels receptionists and waiters during stints abroad while still a schoolgirl. “I think it means so much to the both of us,” she said. “I think doing it together makes it extra special and to do it with family, I think we both deserve this.

“It’s been a long road for both of us but it’s just special that when I started playing tennis at seven years old, he was there and we were always training at 10pm or 11pm when I was 10 years old, my dad was there. When it was raining, when it was hot, he was always there by my side. I think it means a lot to both of us.”

In an interview with a Danish journalist in 2015, Piotr noted that “maybe people mostly notice the strawberries on top of the cake, but we spent many years making the cake itself”.

They have remodelled aspects of her game, with Wozniacki’s forehand boasting more power and her attitude on serve more ­aggressive.

Her backhand has always been sublime and its precision early against Halep was critical, driving it down the line time and again. Crucial too was her court coverage. Very little ­separated the two rivals on Saturday night but the Dane’s ability to reach an extra ball proved decisive, as the last two points of the tournament demonstrated.

Most importantly, though, Wozniacki never let setbacks dim her conviction that her time as champion would come as long as she worked as hard as possible.

“Sometimes I think it’s all about luck as well and sometimes experience, a bit of everything,” she said.

“You never know when you’re going to peak. You want to peak at the right times. You want to peak at the biggest tournaments.

“But as I said, I’ve won everything else and I was just thinking: ‘It’s just a matter of time whenever it’s going to go my way and be me standing there with the trophy’.”

That time was Saturday night, and having worked a lifetime to reach it, it is little wonder she gripped “Daphne” tight.