Miami 2014 quarters: Li vs. Woz.

[MargaretMcAleer]

31 winners for Li v 3 (!) for Wozniacki. That's insane!

Not really for Caroline

 

[Front242]

Sorry, 5 winners for Woz. The commentator said 3 before the stats came out.

 

[Front242]

31 winners for Li v 3 (!) for Wozniacki. That's insane!

Not really for Caroline

But even for her counter punching style she'd surely normally get more than 5!

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

31 winners for Li v 3 (!) for Wozniacki. That's insane!

Not really for Caroline

But even for her counter punching style she'd surely normally get more than 5!

Yup

 

[Correspondent Kiu]

I think the breaks did more damage than anything else in this match, Li was 5 for 6, Caro was 3 for 8

 

[Moxie]

I'm glad Li won, but I'm not convinced by her form. She could have waltzed away with that match.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Li would have hit more winners if she kept her ufe more in check....

 

[Front242]

Li would have hit more winners if she kept her ufe more in check....

Doesn't that count for everyone

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

I am also glad Li won.

 

[Front242]

She goes for a bit too much on many shots. When her shots are clipping the baseline during rallies she's incredibly tough but all it takes is an inch or two for them to be out and they often are.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Li would have hit more winners if she kept her ufe more in check....

Doesn't that count for everyone

Yes....but we were discussing this match

 

[Front242]

Li would have hit more winners if she kept her ufe more in check....

Doesn't that count for everyone

Yes....but we were discussing this match

I know She could've and probably should've had way more.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Li would have hit more winners if she kept her ufe more in check....

Doesn't that count for everyone

Yes....but we were discussing this match

I know She could've and probably should've had way more.

All I can say is that stiff drink helped when she did than insane drop shot

 

[Front242]

^ Yeah, that drop shot was nuts :nono A similar screw up ended up contributing greatly to Federer losing the 2009 US Open final to Del Potro. No way a drop shot should be used in key points. At the start of a game is fine.

 

[colleen66]

In watching the match I have arrived to the conclusion that Caroline will never win a major unless she hits with more power, come to net more, attack her opponent's serve and stop waiting for her opponent to make an error. I love Caroline, but at times she plays like the garage-door one practices against; the ball comes back to you unless you make an error. Li's shots (when on) ripped through the courts, Caro's just.........I don't even know! She is a strong girl and must stop with being content to push the ball across the net to keep it in play. (My rant is now over, lol).

 

[tented]

In watching the match I have arrived to the conclusion that Caroline will never win a major unless she hits with more power, come to net more, attack her opponent's serve and stop waiting for her opponent to make an error. I love Caroline, but at times she plays like the garage-door one practices against; the ball comes back to you unless you make an error. Li's shots (when on) ripped through the courts, Caro's just.........I don't even know! She is a strong girl and must stop with being content to push the ball across the net to keep it in play. (My rant is now over, lol).

Caroline will never win a Major, and for the reasons you outline perfectly. That window closed a couple of years ago.

 

[jhar26]

I was never convinced that she would win a major. Not even when she was #1. I did put her more in the 'dangerous outsider' category when it came to the majors in those days. But she had at least a theoretical chance because she won Indian Wells and other top tier events. If you can win those you can with a bit of luck also win a major.

I no longer buy the "she needs to add weapons to her game" argument. If she could she would have by now. All those coaches she went through no doubt tried to add to her offensive arsenal, but nothing did happen. Since she's started these experiments she hasn't added anything to her offense, she's only become less consistent on defense. She hasn't become a more rounded player listening to everyone's "you need to do this, you need to do that" comments - she's just become a less effective version of her former self.

So my advice to Caroline would be: Ignore the negative comments about your playing style. Do what you do best - keep the ball alive and keep the UE count as low as possible. It doesn't sound like much, but it obviously makes your opponents feel very uncomfortable because otherwise your results in 2009-2011 wouldn't have been what they were. Just check out the comments on tennis forums and the social media as a guide - the more negative they are, the better you probably have done.

Forget about what Davenport, Evert or Navratilova have to say about your game. They overloaded you with positive comments when you played Paszek at Wimbledon because of your offensive tennis......but you lost the match. Just win again and let them whine that you'll never win a major. The're probably right, but you won't consistently lose to non-entities anymore either as you have done on a consistent basis for over two years now. Because one thing's for sure - if you can keep that UE count down to a bare minimum you can do extremely well on the WTA tour where most players make so many UE these days that it borders on the ridiculous. Let THAT be your 'weapon' again. That abilitity to hit the ball over the net and between the lines while 80% of the tour thinks that a tennis court has the size of a football pitch.

And another thought - no, I don't think that her disappointing results of the last two and a half years have anything whatsoever to do with other players figuring out her game and how to play her. There was never anything to figure out to begin with because her strenghts and weaknesses were hardly a secret - poor forehand, great backhand, mediocre at the net, great mover, great stamina, poor offense, great defense, mentally strong (at least in the days of old)....I don't see what there was to figure out.

No, the main reason why she did great back then and poor today is that the 2012-2014 version of Caroline Wozniacki makes more errors in a game than the 2009-2011 version did in a set. She now sometimes misses two or three completely routine shots in a row of the kind that she wouldn't miss at all when she was doing great.

And that is of course closely related to her other big problem at the moment - a complete lack of self-confidence. She now loses the vast majority of close matches she's involved in. In 2009-2011 when a match got to, say, 4-4 in the third I as a Woz fan had a big smile on my face because I just knew that the match was hers. Now when it gets to 4-4 I know that it's choking time. But what we call mental strenght is simply the result of getting into the habit of winning. Her delighful opponent from yesterday Na Li has that now. Most of the time Li still plays some vey sloppy error prone tennis. But it doesn't matter because no matter how bad things get, she's convinced that she'll be the one who wins the last point. And that's because she's won so many matches this year that she doesn't think she can lose anymore. Winning, just like losing becomes a habit. Li now has the habit of winning while Caro is in the habit of losing, and it has a negative effect on everything she does. The only way to turn that around is by having a few close matches against quality opponents where she doesn't end up with the short end of the stick.

 

[pavlik89]

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rcvg5EV-wyw[/video]

 

[10isfan]

Jhar, thanks for posting such insightful, articulate comments. I doubt anyone could have stated the case better. Glad you have decided to become a more active contributor after some length of absence.