MAMMA MIA – Caroline Wozniacki has finally won a Grand Slam title.
The female lead from the ABBA musical sang “The Winner Takes It All” before the match.
And it was Wozniacki, after two hours and 50 minutes of drama, who triumphed 7-6 3-6 6-4 in the battle of the Slamless wonders.
In the process, she regained the world No 1 spot to her opponent, but this was more about losing something else – the stigma of reaching the top of the rankings without winning one of the sport’s four biggest prizes.
How much did they want to get that monkey off their back? The tennis gods were determined to push them to their limits.
It was a brutal and brilliant struggle befitting a match with so much at stake.
The pair had to fight not only each other but also stifling conditions which meant the Extreme Heat Policy came into play for the second time in a hot and humid Melbourne day.
Halep had already played two marathon matches in her run to the final and received treatment midway through the second set before recovering sufficiently to level the match.
Then Wozniacki took a medical timeout after the Romanian had moved 4-3 ahead with a break in the see-sawing decider.
The latest in a series of brilliant rallies brought up match point for the Dane. Halep had saved five others in the event, but a sixth was beyond her and Wozniacki collapsed to the court in joy and exhaustion.
Nine years after her first final appearance at the 2009 US Open, at last tennis’ longest-running bridesmaid was the blushing bride.
If Wozniacki was nervous, she didn’t show it in the first set. The great Dane banged down three first serves off the bat and took early control of the match.
Halep, 26, didn’t seem to have the jitters.
But nor did she have an answer to an opponent who was serving harder and hitting ground strokes deeper and with more power, driving her back and preventing her from dictating points.
After 10 minutes, the pocket rocket Romanian was 0-3 down and really up against it.
In November she had lost 6-0 6-2 to Wozniacki in a round robin match at the WTA Tour Finals, an event the Dane went on to win. A similar drubbing seemed possible.
But fair play to Halep, she forced her way back into the opening set, putting more heat on her own serve and shots, and coming to the net behind them to good effect.
And when Wozniacki came to serve for it at 5-3, it seemed she was feeling the pressure when she fell 0/40 down. She saved two break points, but not the third, and it was back on serve.
The sadist in you wanted a tiebreak, just to see how they would each cope with the tension.
The answer was: well, but Wozniacki much the better. There were some good rallies, but the Dane had too much power for Halep and took it convincingly 7-2.
After a low-key start to the second set, the third game was a mini-classic.
SHINE LIKE A DIAMOND Who is Caroline Wozniacki’s NBA-star fiance David Lee?
Four times Wozniacki held break point, four times Halep saved it with brave tennis, trying to win the rally rather than waiting for her opponent to lose it.
The effort seemed to be taking its toll on the Romanian in the hot and humid conditions. After she had held serve for a 3-2 lead, she was attended by a physio and other staff and appeared to have her blood pressure measured.
But the world No 1 took a deep breath and continued trying to hunt Wozniacki down.
She broke serve in the eighth game to earn the right to serve for the set and on wobbly-looking legs, saved three break points, failed to convert two set points and finally levelled the match after another lung-busting rally.
Halep barely had the energy to turn to her box to celebrate the set and both players left the court.
For the second time in the day and the second time at the tournament, conditions were such to bring the Extreme Heat Policy into play and that meant the pair could take a 10-minute break in the cool of the locker room.
Back they came for the one-set shootout as the seagulls continued to gather on the roof of the Rod Laver Arena, in expectation perhaps of some Alfred Hitchcock-style drama.
And they got it.
Serving first in a decider is normally an advantage and it soon seemed it would be so for Wozniacki. Wozniacki held from 0/30 down in the opening game and then broke Halep in the next.
But the Dane, having saved five break back points in the third, double faulted on the sixth to let her opponent bring it back on serve.
Not for long. Some tired-looking shots by Halep handed Wozniacki a break to love, only for the Romanian to hit back immediately.
Halep broke the run of four breaks to level the set at 3-3 and then took the Wozniacki serve again for a 4-3 lead.
The physio returned to court, this time to attend to Wozniacki, ratcheting the tension up another notch. The Dane’s break back to 4-4 lifted it another.
You always thought this match might be won by a break, so hard would it be to hold the nerve to serve it out.
Yet another fabulous rally brought up match point for Wozniacki and she took it.
Leave a comment