Australian Open: Caroline Wozniacki Is Not the Most Overrated No. 1 Player Ever

Caroline Wozniacki certainly has her critics right now, with several fans calling her the most overrated world No. 1 player ever.

Wozniacki has yet to win a Grand Slam, and many people feel that had Francesca Schiavone not been a part of the longest-ever women’s match in a major tournament on Sunday, she would have blasted past Wozniacki in straight sets in Melbourne in the quarterfinal clash.

The Dane appeared to be mentally shot for the first set-and-a-half, and even though she had a medical timeout at the start of the second set, you have to think that the majority of her problems had nothing to do with the tape around her left thigh.

Wozniacki expected to coast. She probably even thought that Schiavone would need to call it quits at some point. It wasn’t until the end of the second set that fatigue caught up with the plucky Italian that the unforced errors came in bunches.

The top-ranked player in the competition seemed to have no gameplan for Schiavone and her passive safety-first style of play yielded absolutely no results because of her inability to win the big points.

Still, I am here to tell you that Wozniacki is not the most overrated No. 1 player ever.

The truth is that Wozniacki is a world-class player who needs to mature. She needs to have better focus and a bigger will to win. She has to dominate points more and she needs to volley more. BUT, she is just 20 years old and was highly successful in 2010.

There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that if Serena Williams was healthy right now that she would be No. 1 in the world. I get that. Wozniacki isn’t the best tennis player on the face of the planet right now, but she has been the best consistently active player over the last year, and that is what the rankings are based on.

Is there a flaw in the ranking system? Maybe, maybe not, but that is not the question here. Don’t hate Wozniacki for succeeding within a very strict set of guidelines that she did not create or has no control over.

Wozniacki did not just canter through small tournaments to earn her ranking. She played in the top events and won more titles (six) and more matches (62) than anybody else on the Tour. Yes, more than Vera Zvonareva, Kim Clijsters, Sam Stosur, Francesca Schiavone et al.

I don’t want to hear the argument that she accumulated more points because she simply played more events, because that too is untrue. A player can only keep points for their most successful 16 events, and generally speaking, if they play in Slams or Premier events, these points count regardless of how poorly they performed.

Sure, Wozniacki didn’t a title at a Grand Slam, but she still earned more points than anybody else on Tour, in spite of that. Think about that for a minute.

She still managed to accumulate more points than every other player in the world last year, even though she never won an event in which the four winners get twice as many ranking points as the winner of any other tournament in the world.

Casual tennis fans watch the Majors in isolation, ignoring the dozens of Premier, International and ITF events, and I’m sure it’s those fans who are most vocal about why Wozniacki is undeserving.

She is deserving and has turned her own style of tennis into a successful formula week in and week out, staying healthy and playing the best tournaments against the best players.

Kim Clijsters, Amelie Mauresmo, Jelena Jankovic and Dinara Safina were all ranked as the top player in the world despite never winning a Grand Slam. I don’t remember this quartet receiving the same negativity that Wozniacki is now getting.

It took Mauresmo 16 months to win the Australian Open after first becoming world No. 1, while Clijsters needed just over two years to win her first title at the 2005 US Open. Jankovic and Safina are still waiting, and it’s probably fair to say that their best days are now behind them.

I would say that Wozniacki is better than both Jakovic and Safina and, if you want to throw the name of a world No. 1 who has won a Slam out there, Ana Ivanovic.

Wozniacki will win a Grand Slam and it could come as early as five days' time.

The fact remains that, as of right now, Wozniacki is the best active player in the world. There’s a good chance that she will also be No. 1 through Dubai and Doha and, if she continues to play well to the end of the hard court season in Indian Wells and Miami, she could even go into the European clay court season at the top.

That will mean she will have been at No. 1 longer than Safina, Clijsters and Jankovic, as well as Maria Sharapova. Does that validate her position more? It shouldn’t, but it’s worth keeping in mind.

History will ultimately determine where Wozniacki ranks among the best ever, but for now you have to judge her against her competition. Until somebody steps up and takes that ranking from her, it’s hers to keep and nobody deserves it more.

When Wozniacki wins the women’s title in Melbourne on Sunday, maybe people will then start giving her the respect she deserves.