It’s been a bad week for Caroline Wozniacki. On Monday, a wrist injury forced her to withdraw from her first round match at the Apia International Sydney – her last tournament before the Australian Open, which starts this coming Monday.
And then yesterday, she learned her probable second round opponent in the first grand slam of the year will be none other than Victoria Azarenka, a two-time winner of the Aussie Open in 2012 and 13.
Not the same player though
However, Azarenka is not the player she once was. She spent most of 2014 on the sidelines with injury, which explains why she has fallen to number 42 in the world.
And she got knocked out of the Brisbane International earlier this month by the kind of player she would have normally dispatched with ease.
Like Wozniacki, Azarenka had a painful relationship split in 2014. Her break-up with the singer Redfoo led to a bout of depression. And given that Redfoo is a judge on the Australian version of ‘X Factor’, her trip to Australia will bring increased media focus.
Azarenka has a daunting first round opponent to deal with first: Sloane Stephens, a semi-finalist at the Australian Open in 2013, whose career has stuttered a little since. From a high of number 11 in October 2013, her world ranking has slipped to 33.
Williams in the quarters
Meanwhile, should Wozniacki prevail, she is likely to meet the number one seed, her off-court pal and on-court nemesis Serena Williams, in the quarter-finals.
From being third favourite last week, Wozniacki is now rated the seventh most likely to win by bookmakers following her injury and draw, and is available at 20s with some firms.
