Caroline Wozniacki, World No 1 for 71 weeks (2010-2012) and winner of the 2018 Australian Open. Image: EPA
Caroline Wozniacki was one of the best players of her generation, but also a parody of Barbie doll. Three years and two children later, she returns to tennis this Tuesday in Montreal. To fight against oblivion.
Caroline Wozniacki is 33 years old, “the age of Christ”, say the great minds, “the age when the stars align in exactly the same position as the day of our birth, offering us a second chance to live in adequacy with our deep self”, add the astrologers. But Caro does not want to miss this second chance.
Three years and two children later, the ex-world No1 returns to tennis – like so many others. She even came back from everything; of a dream life where she would have made her bread and run naked through the ferns, where the veil of mist on the pearly rose of the morning ( 🎻 ) would have given her as much ecstasy as the front page of Vogue. In reality, she too has become a princess without court, stripped of her finery, attached to her cushy life (tied up?) by the sacred bonds of marriage.
With his eldest daughter and grandfather David Lee, ex-NBA basketball player.
Carline Wozniacki now has new dreams, winning mixed doubles with Holger Rune at the Olympic Games of Paris and try on her own too, drawing on the resources of her inner self. But since with Caro, happiness never comes alone, she doesn’t just say that she missed tennis. She adds militant postures of an independent woman, in Frida Kahlo mode of the retro effect.
“For the past three years, I’ve stayed away from tennis. I became a mother, I have two children of whom I am very proud. But I still have goals to achieve. For female players, it’s often one or the other. I want to prove to women and to myself that we can reconcile the two, be fulfilled as a family at home and lead a brilliant career.
Caro does not come back to drive away boredom, three notes of blues and a bit of black humor (ⓒ JJG). Tired of being an ex, she returns “to exist”. “Pursuing goals”. She arrives with her two brats under her arm, 2 years and 8 months, then her boyfriend in the kitchen, to put the champion back in the middle. All with an intact sense of staging:
After all these years, Caroline Wozniacki has remained this living advertisement that the WTA liked to promote, whether it was for her frail nightgowns or her racket kick. How to forget? On prime time evenings, the fairness of her 20s streamed over her shoulders like a flow of honey, her smile said thank you to life, dad was there, mom too – who makes chocolate – her plaintive little cry sounded the hallali bitches and rude.
All that remained was to win tournaments… Caroline Wozniacki has always had a drawling accent and a loose tongue; but her babbling was not always enough to stifle the fundamental debate, that of a world No1 who had not won the slightest Grand Slam. Regular and going to war. But who had neither panache nor extravagance. Desperately rational and geometric tennis.
“Caroline has a perfect understanding of what she is able and unable to do. If she were a wealth manager, she would get good returns, but she would never become a billionaire,” Geoff MacDonald, analyst of the New York Times.
It is Roger Federer who was the first to come to his aid: “Caroline is No 1 without having won a major tournament, so what? On the WTA Tour, a lot of girls are just passing through. It’s not Caroline’s problem. She does her job and if she is number one in the world, she deserves it. It is the result of domination. She has been living with the same reproach for months and this remark sends her back to her own guilt. Personally, I would find it difficult to get on the court with such a weight.
And it was even very difficult… So difficult that the cuirass cracked sometimes – twice, three times, how many other times at the corner of a mini-bar?
While everyone was obsessed with her CV, Caroline Wozniacki played with dolls. It was the women’s tennis of the time, where you could play on forms to evade substantive issues. Failing to win, she became a winner. Caro smiled like Barbie to make people forget that she hit like Rocky, a sublime satire of contemporary tennis where, at the balls on Saturday evening, you had to be the most beautiful to win. In 2021, Every Swiatek – hallelujah – swept it all away with a powerful two-handed backhand, rolling the biscotos under an old faded tank top.
Caroline Wozniacki had adopted a utilitarian style, based on immediate gain and optimization of skills. She wanted to be the winner rather than the best. Education classic: Polish father, former footballer, who became a self-taught and possessive tennis coach. In Denmark, old press articles tell of “a frail, smiling and determined kid, ready to eat the world”, “a father who built a machine and wants to make it run”.
But since no one found her funny, if not interesting, Caroline “Woznia… who?”, as the scoffers called her, built herself a character, the archetype of the good friend, always available and prepared. Always attentive to his neighbor (Rory McIllroy), even if it means moving on to the next one (David Lee).
With golfer Rory McIlroy.
So one fine day, at the Australian Open, Caroline Wozniacki undertook to change her image, to appear less sweet and first class. She arrived at the press conference with gloves of boxing and an inflatable kangaroo, to fend off all attacks on its No. 1 status. kangaroo.
Another day, the Dane did the questions and answers. “Caroline, are you happy with your game? Yes, my game is in place, I’m relieved to have passed this round. What are your expectations in this tournament? I remain “focus”, I take match after match. It was just a parody, of course. But damn it was well imitated.
We dreaded everything this moment when Caroline Wozniacki would arrive disguised as a koala or a rhododendron that we closed our eyes to her decline. She also understood that her desperate rantings would not restore her legitimacy. “Sorry, I’m a little blonde,” she finally repented. She had become so ambiguous, mixing the meaning of career with atrabilar kangaroos, that no one knew who he was dealing with. So Caro was quickly forgotten. Even after winning a Grand Slam, well, some six years later (Australian Open 2018).
Did she miss tennis? Maybe not. Is everyone happy to see her again? Those who love second chances cannot remain indifferent to the resurrection of a 33-year-old champion, and the hope of finally discovering her inner self.
2023-08-07 19:02:21
