Australian Open 2012: Kim Clijsters Ruins Run of World No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki

Caroline Wozniacki is no longer the top-ranked player on the women's tour. Her loss in straight sets to defending Australian Open champion Kim Clijsters will drop her from the top spot, according to the Associated Press, which is fitting because she clearly didn't deserve it.

Wozniacki is not the best women's tennis player in the world even though her ranking over the past year would lead you to believe that. She thrives at smaller tournaments, but has failed to produce on the major stages.

It's mostly due to her playing style. Wozniacki is a terrific defensive player, which works well against inferior opponents, but she doesn't possess enough power to take down an elite player when it matters most.

Clijsters had too much firepower for Wozniacki, who attempted to take more risks and still couldn't hit the ball through the court enough to take a set.

All told, Clijsters had 39 winners to just 13 for the Danish star. It's a common theme that's been seen whenever she goes up one of the game's best players. Her tactics don't work nearly as well when the opponent has big-hitting ability like Clijsters or Serena Williams.

That's why her No. 1 ranking was always laughable.

Give her credit for traveling the world to play in some obscure tournaments and beating the players she should beat, but at the biggest events she was never the top threat to emerge victorious.

Perhaps losing her spot at the top will finally illustrate to Wozniacki that her game needs retooling. Until she becomes more aggressive and stops focusing solely on getting balls back, she is going to remain winless in Grand Slam events.

She can't be blamed for holding the No. 1 spot for an extended period, that's a flaw in the ranking system, but I think it gave her a false sense of security about her game. It made her believe she truly was an elite player, even though her results against the WTA's other stars proved otherwise.

Another Grand Slam failure paired with the ranking drop should be enough to open her eyes to the flaws in her game. Hopefully it motivates her to make changes moving forward so a return to the top would be more deserved.

In other words, the initial disappointment of losing the match and ranking will be better for Wozniacki in the long run. She's still a young player with an extremely bright future, but that status quo simply wasn't ever going to be good enough.

It's something that was obvious to everyone else for quite some time, and hopefully she's finally seen the light as well.