By Chris Oddo | Monday January 29, 2018
The 2018 Australian Open was a Grand Slam characterized by grit, by perseverance and ultimately by hope on the women’s side.
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Before Caroline Wozniacki met Simona Halep in the first women’s singles Grand Slam final to ever feature two players who had saved match points to get there, before it was deemed that the winner would not only win their first major title, but finish the week as the WTA’s No.1 player, there was the grit.
Wozniacki saved two match points and battled back from 5-1, 40-15 down to escape a second-round match with Jana Fett. She rallied to win six straight games and book her spot in the third round. The second seed, going down to a virtual unknown who was making her Grand Slam main draw debut? In the second round?
How much criticism would Wozniacki have faced for that loss, had it happened? It’s easy to guess, but impossible to know, because the improbable victory ended up being the springboard to a run for the ages for the Dane.
Before the tournament Wozniacki, considered one of the favorites, was asked how she dealt with the pressure of potentially winning her first Slam, and not having done so at this advanced stage of her career.
“I just play and have fun,” she said. “That's it. All I can do is my best and be in the moment, play my best tennis. If that's good enough, that's great. If it's not, that's okay also. You go back home, you practice, you try again.”
Meanwhile, on the other side of the draw a similarly improbable and endearing story was taking place. Top-seeded Simona Halep had shaken off a severe ankle sprain in the first round and battled past Lauren Davis in a three-hour and 44-minute thriller to reach the second week. Without her best tennis, and her fitness, the Romanian was left to battle with tenacity, desire and a newfound mental toughness that has enabled her to reach another level of late. Though she had survived the first week, Halep’s half of the draw was littered with potential minefields. On her bum ankle, how could she keep her undefeated run to start the season rolling?
She found a way.
Halep aced a round of 16 test against Naomi Osaka then rolled past No.6-seeded Karolina Pliskova in the quarters before saving another pair of match points to defeat a resurgent Anqelique Kerber 9-7 in the fifth—another crowning achievement for a player who did everything but claim the crown by demonstrating the maximum effort to reach the final.
Despite the heartbreaking defeat, her third loss in a Grand Slam final that had gone three sets, Halep left with her head held high.
“I can still smile,” an exhausted Halep said after the final, just a few hours before she would end up in a hospital bed with an IV in her arm due to dehydration. “It's fine. I cried, but now I'm smiling. I'm sad that I lost the match, I was not the winner. But, you know, life goes on. For sure in the future, if I keep working like this and I keep playing like this, I will be in a good position again.”
Why is it so easy for so many to see Halep for what she hasn’t won rather than what she has? It’s human nature in this cruel world where anybody with a Twitter handle can take a shot at ripping down a true hero, but any criticism of Halep’s shortcomings (if you want to call losing three major finals without yet winning one a shortcoming) cruelly underestimates her as a talent. Still only 26, the Romanian continues to improve on the court and off. She may have lost Saturday’s final but the strides she has made as a competitor, with the help of her longtime coach Darren Cahill, are bound to pay off in the form of a Grand Slam title not too far down the road.
Look no further than Kim Clijsters, a magnificently talented player who dropped her first four Grand Slam finals before winning her next four and solidifying her place as a Hall of Famer and one of the greatest to ever hammer a topspin drive. Or Jana Novotna (may she rest in peace), who fabulously won Wimbledon a few months shy of turning 30 after losing her first three Grand Slam finals.
There will always be critics of Wozniacki’s game as well, even after this crowning achievement; those who say she isn’t aggressive enough and her defense-first style will always put her in chains against today’s rising power brokers. But their arguments won’t hold water anymore, because Wozniacki is a Grand Slam champion now and about to enter her 68th week at No.1, six years after her 67th week.
That six-year gap is the longest between stints at No.1 in WTA history and it is testament to the generational and generation-spanning talent of Wozniacki. Long derided for her lack of aggression, she took the time to cultivate a more aggressive version of herself and over the last 52 weeks has used that newfound “juice” to fashion a wildly impressive revival.
“I think I've improved everything,” Wozniacki said before the tournament began, a mere fortnight ago. “I think nothing that is very drastic, but at the same time it's small improvements all the time. That's also what makes tennis fun. You're never perfect. There's always things you can work on. You try and be perfect, but it's just not possible. It's one of those games.”
Wozniacki has won 71 matches and played ten finals since the beginning of 2017. She may have lost seven of those finals but by winning the 2017 WTA Finals and her first major in Melbourne she has proven that she can win “the big one.”
Nobody can ever question her ability to perform under the spotlight, on the biggest stage, with everything at stake. And even though Halep ended up the loser, she shouldn’t be questioned either. What she endured to come six points from the title is beyond commendable. You don’t want to throw the word warrior around too lightly in this day and age but there’s no better word to describe the effort that Halep gave in Melbourne.
“I didn't believe that I can go through all these matches,” she assessed after the final. “But I wanted. Looks like I have enough inside power to fight with everything. So it's a good thing. This tournament meant a lot for me.”
Heartbreak, jubilation, grit and perseverance. They were all present and accounted for in spades in this women’s singles final for the ages. One had to lose on the scoreboard, but time will surely reveal that there was more than one winner in this match.