Caroline Wozniacki: Australian Open Failure Proves Martina Navratilova Correct

Martina Navratilova made no secret about the fact that Caroline Wozniacki shouldn't be the top-ranked player in the world.

And after Wozniacki's quarterfinals loss to defending Australian Open champ Kim Clijsters, she's guaranteed to drop from the world's top ranking.

Here's what Navratilova said on Sunday (via Dan Baynes of Bloomberg):

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“Clearly nobody feels that Wozniacki is a true No. 1,” Navratilova said yesterday at a news conference at the Australian Open in Melbourne. “If we still had the same ranking system we were using six years ago, when they were giving bonus points for beating players, Kvitova would have ended up No. 1 because she had beaten more top players than Wozniacki.”

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She wasn't done (via The Associated Press):

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“It weighs too much on quantity and not enough on quality,” Navratilova said of the points-based rankings system. “They both get to a semis and one player beats No. 1 player and No. 3 player to get to the semis, and the other one gets qualifiers and they get the same amount of points. It doesn’t make any sense.”

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Wozniacki had the opportunity to prove Navratilova (and her many other detractors) wrong with a strong showing at the Australian Open. An early season Grand Slam title (and the first in her career) would have been a strong statement that she was in fact the world's top player.

Instead, Navratilova's assessment of the ranking system seems justified. Quantity of wins—the name of the game for Wozniacki—shouldn't trump quality of wins. Wozniacki simply shouldn't have come into this season as the top-rated player in the world when a player such as Petra Kvitova was more impressive in 2011.

Compare their resumes for yourself:

The two finished with very similar records, Kvitova going 60-13 on the year and Wozniacki finishing 63-17. Kvitova had 13 wins against top 10 players in 73 matches—Wozniacki had eight in 80 matches.

Kvitova won at Wimbledon and the WTA Championships.

Wozniacki had the opportunity to prove that she deserved the top ranking in the world. She failed to do so, and worse, lost the top ranking in the process.

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