My editorial colleague Łukasz Jachimiak interviewed Piotr Woźniacki, Caroline’s father and coach. Woźniacki himself asked for this conversation because he wanted to talk about his daughter’s situation and more broadly about the problems in women’s tennis. He emphasized that he was speaking on his own behalf, not that of the players. And he strongly criticized the WTA, i.e. the Women’s Tennis Organization, in many respects.
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Wild cards for Karolina Wozniacka
I am often one of the critics of the WTA and I agree with Woźniacki’s arguments regarding the incorrect planning of the calendar by the activists and doubts about organizing the WTA Finals event in the Arab city of Riyadh. However, it is difficult to understand the grudge that the tennis player’s father has against women’s tennis for the lack of “wild cards” for Caroline for the recent tournament in Rome and the upcoming Grand Slam competitions in Paris.
Woźniacki says this about his daughter: – Isn’t it worth helping such a girl if she decided to come back? The WTA believes that it is operating in an amateur fashion in the world of the largest professional women’s sport of all sports in the world. They sign contracts with the players and the players are obliged to do certain things under these contracts. And what do they get? Nothing, really nothing!
Really nothing? Let’s look at the wild card facts that are largely the subject of Wozniacki’s rants. Caroline Wozniacki retired in January 2020 after being eliminated from the Australian Open. She returned to the game in August last year. Since then, she has received wild cards to the following events: Cincinnati (WTA 1000), US Open (Grand Slam), Montreal (WTA 1000), Auckland (WTA 250), Australian Open (Grand Slam), San Diego (WTA 500), Indian Wells, Miami (both WTA 1000), Charleston (WTA 500) and Madrid (WTA 1000). It’s hard to say that it has been overlooked by tournament organizers over the last few months.
Since her return, the tennis player representing Denmark has played 22 matches – winning half of them. Her best result was the fourth round of the US Open, where she lost only after a fierce battle with Coco Gauff, who later became the tournament champion. In addition, the quarterfinal achieved in Indian Wells was also valuable. Considering this moment in her career and the circumstances of her return, these are quite good results.
Another path of Elina Svitolina
Today, Wozniacki is already 117th in the WTA ranking – the highest since she returned to professional competition. She had some health problems along the way and for this reason she had to withdraw during the semi-final match in California against Iga Świątek and from the representative match in the Billie Jean King Cup with Austria. The tennis player will turn 34 in July, and returning to sports competition after several years is never easy for the body.
Piotr Woźniacki emphasizes: “We are not even able to prepare a plan for Karolina’s starts! We train, we prepare, but it turns out that there is nothing to do.” The question is, could his daughter also perform in smaller events in such a situation? She received wild cards for the largest WTA 1000 competitions or even Grand Slam events, and only one for the WTA 250 category. Since her return, she has not played in WTA 125 or lower events organized by the International Tennis Federation (ITF).
Elina Switolina, for example, decided on such a solution. The Ukrainian returned to the game in April last year after giving birth to a child. She started with smaller ITF tournaments to quickly collect points in the ranking and gain self-confidence after subsequent victories. She also received wild cards to larger events, but thanks to good results in subsequent competitions – including: quarter-finals of Roland Garros 2023 and semi-finals of Wimbledon 2023 – quickly jumped up in the ranking and did not have to count on privileges from the organizers of individual tournaments. Today, the 29-year-old Ukrainian is 17th in the world.
Wozniacki’s current ranking would include, among others: for the qualifying rounds of this year’s Roland Garros, which started on Monday. Why didn’t she join them? – Of course we could, because we have a ranking that allows it. So we could sign up for the eliminations in advance. But Karolina said that she had not worked hard all her life and had not achieved so much to now start as a junior – said her father.
It is even more surprising that a moment later Piotr Woźniacki announces that if the British do not receive the privilege, Karolina will play in the Wimbledon qualifiers. In Paris, he did not receive a wild card this year either, among others. Dominic Thiem (currently 131st ATP) – two-time tournament finalist. The Austrian entered the qualifications and is fighting to advance to the main event.
Wozniacki, Kerber and Osaka – these are not similar situations
Piotr Woźniacki also extends his daughter’s situation to other stories of players who decided to give birth to a child. – Maybe Karolina’s example will help us understand that it is not easy to decide to start a family during your career? Petra Kvitova, among others, is now pregnant, and in general, other tennis players decide to do so, thinking that if they gave birth to Wozniacki, Kerber or Osaka and came back, they will do the same. But the truth is that they don’t know what they will return to, he argues.
The problem is that the cases of Wozniacka, Kerber, Osaka and Kvitova are not the same. The Polish woman representing Denmark first finished her career, then – a year and a half after leaving tennis – she gave birth to her first child, and in October 2022, her second child. In turn, the German, the Japanese and the Czech only suspended their careers during motherhood. Moreover, both Kerber and Osaka – just like Wozniacka – could count on wild cards from the organizers of the respective events in recent weeks. So it’s not like mothers returning to the game are left to their own devices.
Wild cards themselves are a problematic topic in tennis. There are usually two rules – the organizers of given tournaments grant such privileges either to “their” representatives or to stars who, for various reasons, are currently lower in the ranking. The French and Italians often choose the first option and focus on their own players, whom they want to give a chance to compete with the best – this is one of the reasons for the success of Italian tennis players in recent years. In the latest ATP ranking, there are as many as nine Italians in the top 100, and the runner-up is the champion of this year’s Australian Open, Jannik Sinner.
At the level of wild cards, there is also the controversial phenomenon of “reciprocation”. The Roland Garros 2024 tournament website clearly states that Australian Ajla Tomljanović received such a privilege due to an agreement with the organizers of the Australian Open, and American Sachia Vickery due to a similar agreement with the US Open. In New York, the Frenchwoman will probably receive one of the wild cards, and the same will happen in Melbourne next season. In professional sports, in the case of top-ranking events, such arrangements do not look too serious.
To sum up: Caroline Wozniacki’s situation is slightly different than her father’s. The athlete could have participated in the qualifying rounds of the Paris event, but she simply chose not to do so, it was her decision. It’s a pity, because the former WTA ranking leader would have had the opportunity to return to the game in the French capital after five years of absence. Apparently, however, the Woźniackis have a different idea for rebuilding their career and position in the ranking.
2024-05-22 12:17:00
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