Australian Open: Serena, Osaka, Wozniacki - Turbulence Day
With Serena Williams , Caroline Wozniacki and Naomi Osaka , three very big players have said goodbye to the Australian Open. The Danish forever.
by Jörg Allmeroth
last edit:
Jan 24, 2020, 02:54 pm
It was one of the clearest, fastest, and easiest victories Serena Williams had ever celebrated. A good four months ago, under the floodlights of the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York. That evening, after 44 minutes, Williams left the gigantic Center Court again, a playfully easy Grand Slam walk was behind her, a humiliating 6: 1, 6: 0 victory against the Chinese Wang Qiang, who won 15 points. And didn't have a single stroke of victory on her balance sheet.
Tennis can sometimes be a "very crazy game," Williams said on Friday in Melbourne, "Things happen that you don't really anticipate." What was behind her was actually somewhat adventurous, and could hardly be grasped: because perhaps the most bitter grand - Eliminating Islam since returning to the tour business as a mother was here and now exactly the account of the player who had still seemed like a shy novice in the "Big Apple". On the account of Qiang (28), the suddenly extremely thirsty, gripping and last but not least nervous rival, who crossed the finish line after 161 minutes as a striking 6: 4, 6: 7, 7: 5 third round winner. "I was a little bit upset," said Williams later, stunned, "but as a professional athlete you cannot play and appear like this." With her tournament success in Auckland at the beginning of the season, Williams had raised the expectation that the Grand was again within striking distance -Slam happiness to be.
Farewell to Caroline Wozniacki
The earliest end of all Grand Slam dreams in Melbourne since 2006, in the first week of the tournament, was not only the highlight of a turbulent competition day with drama, excitement, moments of surprise and farewell tears by the retiring Dane Caroline Wozniacki. In the case of Williams, he also fueled speculation as to how the career of the greatest player of this era could continue. The hunt for the everlasting Grand Slam record, the setting of the best of 24 major titles by the Australian Margaret Court, is gradually becoming a trauma for the 38-year-old American. "I'm confident that I can win another big cup again," said Williams, but it sounded more like a persistent phrase.
Williams may not be far from a milestone moment as best friend Wozniacki experienced on this eventful Friday. Because the 5: 7, 6: 3, 5: 7 defeat against the Tunisian Ons Jabeur was also the farewell game for the former world ranking number one, the final stroke after 15 tough years in the traveling circus. "Now a new chapter begins," said Wozniacki (29) and "exceptionally" crushed a few tears of emotion. The blonde Dane had finally won her first and only Grand Slam title in Melbourne two years ago, most recently she had slowly withdrawn from the tennis business due to a more serious autoimmune disease, rheumatoid arthritis. "I have no more outstanding bills," said Wozniacki, who won a total of 30 tournaments, "I made my peace with tennis." There is also an official farewell game for Wozniacki, at home in Copenhagen in May. The opponent: Serena Williams, of course.
Gauff in the top 50
While Julia Görges said goodbye to the fierce American Alison Riske after the ups and downs in the 6: 1, 6: 7, 2: 6 third-round loss to the season's first Grand Slam tournament, Cori Gauff quit , the 15-year-old sky striker, was just as fearless as she was fearless in her Melbourne debut as a potential candidate for the title. As the successor to a certain Naomi Osaka, whom she defeated on Friday with courage, boldness, but also a clear head 6: 3 and 6: 4. "It seems a little unreal to me," said Gauff. With which she was not alone, after all, the teenager had experienced a bitter farewell performance at the previous US Open, at 3: 6 and 0: 6 against none other than - Osaka. At that time, Osaka even hugged and comforted the badly beaten 15-year-old in a touching gesture at Ashe Stadium.
Whatever is still to come in Melbourne, a fairy tale of tennis at the very end or a departure before the hot final phase, is one thing for Gauff: it will be among the top 50 in the world rankings for the first time. A year after watching Grand Slam tournaments from afar, number 684 in the top rankings.
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