Indian Wells 2011 Postmortem: Is Caroline Wozniacki Closer To Winning a Slam?

Caroline Wozniacki's won at Indian Wells last weekend, in a three-set defeat of Marion Bartoli, 6-1, 2-6, 6-3. It wasn't ever an entirely breezy affair, with a thrashing of some sort in the second, as Bartoli mercilessly dragged the Danish queen left and right. The only important thing, of course, was that she did ultimately win.

How big an occurrence was it? Possibly no more than any other victory she has won in the last few months. Yet it was the way in which Wozniacki was able to close out the match, and tournament, that was particularly emphatic.

The round before she had dismantled a woeful Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-2, despite talk of the latter's stellar return to the tour. The Russian had scarcely won titles, or reached the semifinal rounds in the last three years—yet even so, her serve, as much a liability as ever, folded before the athletic consistency of Wozniacki.

Little characterises better the men's and women's champions at Indian Wells this year, than as being players of a certain athletic consistency. Wozniacki, and Novak Djokovic, have proven themselves as the baseline defenders par excellence. Sharapova couldn't find a way past her, and neither could Bartoli.

Which isn't to say that Wozniacki doesn't have any of that fearsome firepower herself. Surely, she doesn't have Kim Clijsters' forehand, but she has very fine groundstrokes on both wings. More often, however, she would play a sort of defensive offense, much like, again, her counterpart Novak Djokovic. It is offense through defense, retrieving the assaults of her opponents before finding that opening on which to pounce.

It is how Wozniacki should take this victory psychologically, however, that will count most. Victoria Azarenka had won Miami in 2009, thrashing Serena Williams, but since then had failed to translate Masters success with grand slam attainments. She blew a set and 4-0 lead against Serena Williams and has failed even to reach a slam final.

Wozniacki, however, has had the experience of being in a slam final—she lost to Clijsters at the 2009 US Open—and seems destined, for the moment, to repeating the experiences of the Belgian tennis stateswomen. Clijsters had lost several slam finals before she won her first, while Wozniacki has been ensconced as the world No. 1, and variously No. 2, for quite some time too. It is the curse of the WTA tennis queen, of recent years, to dominate the tour in almost every other tournament than the grand slams.

Surely, Wozniacki has had the solid results, which all justify her ranking. For her to crown her ranking, as it were, a grand slam victory is almost certainly necessary. Her performance at Melbourne, crashing out against Li Na in the semifinals, was lightly disappointing and would suggest she hadn't quite gotten over the I'm-the-best-but-may-lose-to-any-player-on-a-bad-day syndrome.

Her victory at Indian Wells, however, was promising, and one hopes, would generate some psychological stability within the Dane's mind, and therefore some rankings stability for the WTA. Is she the closest, of all the recent WTA wannabes—Safina, Ivanovic, Jankovic, Zvonereva—to winning a grand slam? Possibly. Her Indian Wells victory, however, for the moment would suggest that she would be the most qualified to do so.