Caroline Wozniacki's Renaissance Leads Last 2016 September Winners and Losers

With the U.S. Open in the rearview mirror, a few of the WTA and ATP superstars like Karolina Pliskova and Stan Wawrinka were ready to rumble into the stretch run of the season.

There were mid-major tournaments ranging from Metz, France, to St. Petersburg, Russia, to Tokyo, but a few surprise winners seized the moment.

There are also the usual tennis ups and downs to ponder. Why have stars like Milos Raonic and Belinda Bencic struggled? What’s gotten into Caroline Wozniacki? Who are the two young, promising ATP players who conquered top-10 players to win their first ATP titles?

All of these answers and more about Serena Williams in the late-September edition of Winners and Losers where we examine the top stars and headlines of the week.

Loser: Belinda Bencic

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It’s been a trying year for Swiss potential star Belinda Bencic. Since her rise to prominence in winning Canada’s 2015 Rogers Cup, the teenager continued her momentum with a fourth-round appearance at the Australian Open, and she was the hero for her Fed Cup team, defeating Angelique Kerber along the way. She reached No. 7 in the WTA rankings.

But she has not since been able to maintain her health and consistency. She’s had to withdraw from the French Open, retire from Wimbledon and pull out of the Olympics. She got crushed 6-2, 6-1 in the third round at the U.S. Open by Johanna Konta, a player Bencic likely would have drubbed a year ago.

Bencic’s latest fall was literal. She slipped and hurt her back to begin the Wuhan tournament in China, and reports are still pending as to when she will come back and play.

The good news for Bencic is that she’s only 19 years old with a lot of opportunities ahead, that is if she can recover and have the durability she needs to become a top contender.

Winner: Caroline Wozniacki

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Here comes another surge by Caroline Wozniacki. The famous former No. 1 of 2011 put together flashes of her old form in late 2014, but she had a horrendous decline with injuries and uneven play, falling out of the top 70 before her surprising run to the U.S. Open semifinals.

Now she’s got her first title of 2016 by winning the Toray Pan Pacific Open, keyed by her gruelling semifinal victory over world No. 4 Agnieszka Radwanska. She roars up the rankings to No. 22 and with the much needed results and confidence to look for a brighter 2017.

It would also help if Wozniacki could find more stability with her training. She’s gone through seven coaches since 2009, all of whom have contributed to help her with one area of her game or another, but with the inconsistency one should expect from too many cooks in the kitchen.

Losers: Young Top-10 Stars in the WTA

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Karolona Pliskova was in and out of one match last week.

This should be the time for top, young, power players to play well when veterans like Serena Williams and Angelique Kerber are resting from the weights of exhaustion following their battles at the top. Instead, three top-10 stars were ousted early against thin competition in tournaments they all could have won.

French Open champion Garbine Muguruza has hardly contended since late spring. Her latest loss to Elina Svitolina in the quarterfinals at the Toray Pan Pacific Open is more of a disappointment than a surprise. She has all the tools to dominate, but half the time she’s reeling from strange losses.

American Madison Keys lost an excruciating 9-7 tiebreaker in the third set of her first match to improving Yulia Putintseva who stands 5’4”, which pales in comparison to the towering American. When will Keys boost her game to an elite level?

Karlolina Pliskova, perhaps feeling the air go out of her spirited drive to the U.S. Open final, was swatted aside 6-4, 6-2 by qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich, who is not even ranked in the top 100. Welcome to the jungle, Pliskova, where everyone is hungry to take your place.

Winner: Serena Williams

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Good for Serena Williams. After losing for the second-straight year in the semifinals of the U.S. Open and finally relinquishing her grip on the No. 1 ranking, she will again take time off to recover.

Williams announced that she will be skipping a few tournaments in the weeks ahead, possibly being ready to compete in the World Tour Finals in Singapore.

This time it’s more for her physical health than it was in 2015. Then, the disappointments of not completing a calendar Grand Slam coupled with media demands made it mandatory for her to rest and try to recharge her emotional batteries.

This time, the 35-year-old needs time off for her knee and shoulder to heal, and she understands that she’s going to have to pace herself if she is to keep winning major titles. With no other WTA star dominating the tour, Williams still has the opportunity to be the best player in the game, so long as she’s healthy and able to endure the grind of the WTA tour.

Aging stars like the American do need to take care of their bodies and maximize their highest priorities. She has probably taken herself out of the running for the No. 1 ranking to end 2016, but it’s the right move for a better chance at the 2017 Australian Open title in January.

Loser: Milos Raonic

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The biggest disappointment in the ATP continues to be Milos Raonic. Since the Canadian’s trip to the Wimbledon final nearly three months ago, he is only 6-4, including a second-round loss to Ryan Harrison at the U.S. Open.

This past week at St. Petersburg, No. 2-seed Raonic was ousted in his only match by veteran Mikhail Youzhny.

For starters, he would like to lock up his entry to the World Tour Finals as soon as possible.

The bigger concern is that he is not able to impose his fearsome serving power and more aggressive net play on the faster surfaces that characterize the rest of the year.

There are always doubts about his durability. The big man does not possess graceful footwork, which contributes to the many injuries he has battled the past few years. For instance, his loss to Harrison last month included cramps, left wrist, right forearm, both thighs, left hip flexor and back, according to the Associated Press (via Yahoo.com).

Ouch.

Winner: Lucas Pouille

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Lucas Pouille is another French star in a country that has a deep field of talent but no dominant superstar.

The 22-year-old won his first ATP title by defeating Austria’s dogged star Dominic Thiem with the kind of consistency and heavy power that outlasted Rafael Nadal at the U.S. Open.

It’s fitting that Pouille won in Metz where his compatriots have combined with him to win seven of the last eight titles there. The Frenchman will move up two spots to No. 16 in the rankings.

Could Pouille become the superstar that France has craved for decades? He’s younger than the more visible veterans like Gael Monfils, Richard Gasquet, Gilles Simon and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

It might also delight France that Pouille plays well on clay, because he might be the short-term candidate to win the French Open. The last Frenchman to win any major was Yannick Noah's triumph at Roland Garros in 1983.

The thing to like about Pouille is his grinding skills. He defeated Thiem at Monte Carlo last April, and he has the patience and bite to outlast the biggest stars in tennis.

The top 10 could become a heated, competitive zone as Pouille, Alexander Zverev, Nick Kyrgios and others look to push back perennial veterans and compete for their own breakthroughs.

Losers: Missed Opportunities for ATP Stars

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David Goffin is finding the second half of 2016 more difficult than his strong springtime results.

We’re going to give a pass to Stan Wawrinka for finally losing a final, but it is also curious that he did not rest another week as he prepares for bigger level-500 and Masters 1000 tournaments in a busy October.

Tomas Berdych, ranked No. 9, did pick up 80 points for getting to the semifinals at St. Petersburg, and this came after missing the U.S. Open with appendicitis. But he needs a couple of bigger tournament results if he is to slip into the top eight for November’s World Tour Finals.

Dominic Thiem is showing signs of recovering his pre-Wimbledon form, but he insists on playing as often as he can. Losing the Metz final to Lucas Pouille might be less important than staying fresh and healthy to do damage ahead.

David Goffin is completing his best year, but he lost as the No. 2 seed to Pouille and his chance to win a title in 2016. He is only 7-4 since Wimbledon and has slipped from No. 11 to 14 in the rankings. Has his career-best run already finished?

Winner: Alexander Zverev

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It was the first of what will be many titles for Alexander the Great. Germany’s rising star closed out an impressive weekend winning the St. Petersburg title with a hard-fought 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 final against U.S. Open champion Stan Wawrinka.

Prior, Zverev blasted veterans Tomas Berdych and Mikhail Youzhny to become the first teenager to win an ATP title since Marin Cilic in 2008, according to ATP World Tour. He had previously lost a final each on clay and grass this year, and he snapped Wawrinka’s streak of 11 straight wins in a final, which was nearly three years of work.

Expect a lot more winning from the 19-year-old. His lanky size, power and all-courts talent make him possibly the best of the young players on tour. Ranked No. 24 right now, don’t be surprised if he is knocking on the door of the top 10 in 2017.