Aleksandra Wozniak

Aleksandra Wozniak

Country	Canada
Residence	Blainville, Quebec, Canada
Date of birth	September 7, 1987 (1987-09-07) (age 23)
Place of birth	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight	67.5 kg (149 lb; 10.63 st)
Turned pro	2005
Plays	Right-handed Two-handed backhand
Career prize money	US$1,149,244
Singles
Career record	219–143
Career titles	1 WTA, 7 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 21 (June 22, 2009)
Current ranking	No. 53 (August 16, 2010)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	1R (2007, 2009, 2010)
French Open	4R (2009)
Wimbledon	2R (2008, 2010)
US Open	3R (2009)
Doubles
Career record	28–45
Career titles	0 WTA, 0 ITF
Highest ranking	No. 136 (June 7, 2010)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	1R (2009)
French Open	2R (2010)
Wimbledon	2R (2009)
US Open	1R (2008)
Last updated on: August 16, 2010.

Aleksandra Wozniak (born September 7, 1987, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada) is a professional Canadian tennis player of Polish descent. Wozniak is Canada's highest-ranked women's singles player at #53 in the world (August 16, 2010), and the 4th-highest ranked Canadian singles player of all time.^[1] She has won one WTA and seven ITF tournaments, and is the only Québécoise ever to have won a WTA tournament.

Early life

Wozniak speaks six languages, having learned Polish first.^[2][3] She has been coached since she was 3 years old by her Polish-born father,^[4], Antoni, a former pro soccer player^[5] whose "day" job is that of a truck inspector.^[6] Her older sister, Dorota, was the No. 1 player in Canada in the 14-and-unders and the 16-and-unders,^[7] and 2-time NCAA champion for San Diego State.^[5]

Tennis career

2002–05

In 2002, as a 14-year-old, Wozniak won the Canadian Indoors Under-16 and Under-18 championships.^[8] Aleksandra won the Kentucky International Junior Tennis Derby in 2004.^[9] In 2005, Wozniak reached #3 in the juniors.^[6] She also won the Tevlin Challenger 25K tournament in Toronto, the Hamilton Challenger 25K in Canada, the Victoria Challenger 25K and the Junior Casablanca Cup (as well as the doubles) in Mexico, and the Junior Del Cafe Cup (as well as the doubles) in Costa Rica.^[9]

2006

Wozniak won the Pittsburgh Challenger (defeating Belarusian Victoria Azarenka),^[10] the Ashland Challenger (defeating Hungarian Ágnes Szávay),^[11] and Hamilton Challenger tournaments.^[12]

In February she beat her first top 100 player, world #63 Na Li in Thailand. In November she defeated her first top 50 player, world #40 Olga Poutchkova in Pittsburgh.

2008

In the first round of the French Open in June, Wozniak made it to the third round, before losing to 11th seed Vera Zvonareva. It was by far her best performance at any of the Grand Slams, and she became the first Québécoise to reach the third round of a Grand Slam since 2002.^[13]

In July, Wozniak won her first WTA singles title at the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, California. During the tournament she beat world #20 Francesca Schiavone of Italy, world #29 Sybille Bammer, and world #5 Serena Williams of the US (who had to retire in the match), before defeating sixth seed Marion Bartoli of France in the final. She was a qualifier to the tournament, so she had to win 3 qualifying matches and then 5 main draw matches in nine days. Wozniak became the first Canadian in 20 years to win a WTA singles title.^[14] The victory vaulted her WTA singles ranking from #85 to #45 in the world. In August 2008, she was presented with key to the city in Blainville, Québec, by the mayor; they renamed it "Wozniakville" for 24 hours because for the first time a woman from Québec won a Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles title (when she won Stanford in July).^[15]

She received an award from the National Assembly of Québec in October 2008 for her career-high ranking of #37 and first Tour singles title.^[15] Wozniak signed in November with Mamba International, a sports management company based in Charlottesville, Virginia.^[16]

2009

Wozniak was defeated in the second round of the ASB Classic in Auckland by Ayumi Morita; she had defeated Magdaléna Rybáriková in the first round 6–3, 6–7, 7–5. Wozniak lost German Sabine Lisicki, also of Polish Heritage, in the first round of the 2009 Australian Open where she was the 30th seed.

Wozniak joined up with compatriot Daniel Nestor in the mixed doubles. In the first round they defeated Australian juniors Bernard Tomic and Monika Wejnert 6–3. 6–2. In the second round they pulled off a surprise to defeat Mark Knowles and Yan Zi 7–6, 6–4. They played Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi of India in the quarter-finals but they lost 6-3, 4-6, 5-10.

In March she defeated world #48 Lucie Šafářová 6–3, 6–3 in Indian Wells. That month she moved up to a career-best world #29. She reached her third single final in April in Ponte Vedra Beach, beating world #10 Nadia Petrova 6–4, 4–6, 6–2 in the semi-finals, but was defeated by world #12 Caroline Wozniacki 1–6, 2–6. In May she upset world #13 Marion Bartoli of France, 7–6 (2), 6–2, at the Madrid Open.^[17]

Wozniak as the No. 24 seed became the first Québécoise to ever be seeded at Roland-Garros.^[13] At the French Open, Wozniak made the second round after a three-set victory. She then reached the third round at Roland-Garros for the second consecutive year by beating Croatian Petra Martić 6–3, 6–3.^[18] In the third round, Wozniak defeated world #87 Spaniard clay-court specialist Lourdes Domínguez Lino 6–2, 3–6, 6–3, with some rallies lasting 25 shots.^[19] Wozniak next faced Serena Williams, whom she had beaten on their only previous meeting in July 2008.^[20] However, Williams prevailed, 6–1, 6–2.^[21][22]

She became Canada's first representative in the fourth round of the French Open women's draw in 17 years, and the first Canadian woman to survive into the second week at the French Open since Patricia Hy-Boulais in 1992. Wozniak was also the first Canadian to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam event since Maureen Drake qualified for the round of 16 at the 1999 Australian Open. "That's awesome for Canada and I hope to keep going", said Wozniak.^[23]

Wozniak was named Athlete of the Year for the second time in three years at the 24th edition of the Tennis Quebec Excellence Awards. Her father Antoni and fitness trainer André Parent were joint winners of the International Coach of the Year Award for Quebec athletes.^[24]

In June, at the AEGON International in Eastbourne, she dominated newly crowned French Open champion and world #5 Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia 6–0, 6–3 in the first round. She then defeated world #16 Zheng Jie of China in the second round, 7–6 (4), 6–3, and Russian Vera Dushevina in 45 minutes in the quarterfinals, 6–1, 6–0, winning 51 of the 69 points in the match, and breaking every one of Dushevina's service games.^[25] With the win she rose two spots, to a new high of No. 21.^[26] Wozniak then lost to Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark 6-3, 4-6, 4-6 in the semis. In the first round of Wimbledon, where she was the first Canadian to be seeded in singles in 20 years at #23, Wozniak fell to Italy's Francesca Schiavone 6–4, 4–6, 4–6.^[27]

At the 2009 US Open, she advanced to the third round. In the second round she defeated the 17th seed Amélie Mauresmo 6-4, 6-0, before losing to the 10th seed Flavia Pennetta 1-6, 1-6 in the following round. This has been her best US Open appearance to date.

Wozniak entered the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo and caused an upset in the first round where she defeated Kimiko Date Krumm 5-7, 7-6(2), 6-4. Kimiko was 5-2 up in the second set but could not hold her lead. In the second round, Wozniak was up against 4th seed Caroline Wozniacki and won by default as Wozniacki retired at 0-5 complaining of a viral illness. In the third round Wozniak fell to Magdaléna Rybáriková after winning the first set 6-1 but lost the next two sets 3-6, 3-6.

2010

In January, close friend Caroline Wozniacki eliminated Wozniak for the sixth time from the 2010 Australian Open, in two rounds 6–4, 6–2, cementing a reputation as the player's personal bête noire.

After early losses in Miami and Indian Wells, she went to defend her last year final points in Ponte Vedra Beach. She lost 5-7 1-6 in the quartefinals against Dominika Cibulková.

At the 2010 French Open, she lost in the third round against the 5th seed Elena Dementieva in a more than three hours match by the score of 7-6 3-6 4-6.

At the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, Wozniak defeated Eleni Daniilidou in the first round before to lose 6-4 2-6 4-6 against the 4th seed Jelena Janković in the second round.

Fed Cup

Wozniak won her first Fed Cup match in 2004, defeating Swiss Timea Bacsinszky 6–0, 6–4, and had a 28–6 record through May 2009.^[28] In 2006 she beat Argentine world #33 Gisela Dulko, 7–6, 6–3.^[12]

Style of play

Wozniak has a huge, looping backswing, matched by a fast whip-through in the hitting area, and an over-the shoulder follow-through. It gives her plenty of pace and spin on her forehand. She has an effective first serve, but her heavily sliced second serve is exploitable by good returners. She also possesses a good overhead.^[29]

WTA Tour singles finals

Win (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	July 20, 2008	Stanford, USA	Hard	Marion Bartoli	7–5, 6–3

Runner-ups (2)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	May 21, 2007	Fes, Morocco	Clay	Milagros Sequera	6–1, 6–3
2.	April 12, 2009	Ponte Vedra Beach, USA	Clay	Caroline Wozniacki	6–1, 6–2

Singles performance timeline

To help interpret the performance table, the legend below explains what each abbreviation and color coded box represents in the performance timeline.

To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only once a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. This table is current through the 2010 Rogers Cup, which ended August 22, 2010.

• ¹As of 2008, Doha is a Tier I tournament, replacing San Diego and Zurich.
• ²Including a 2-1 record in 2001, though she did not receive a final ranking.

See also

• Caroline Wozniacki

References

External links

• Official website
• www.wtaquebec.com
• Aleksandra Wozniak on the Women's Tennis Association
• Aleksandra Wozniak at the International Tennis Federation
• Aleksandra Wozniak at the Fed Cup

Women's Tennis Association: Top ten Canadian female singles tennis players as of December 6, 2010. 1. Rebecca Marino (105 ) 2. Aleksandra Wozniak (126 ) 3. Stéphanie Dubois (157 2) 4. Heidi El Tabakh (199 ) 5. Valérie Tétreault (206 1) 6. Sharon Fichman (251 1) 7. Gabriela Dabrowski (504 3) 8. Marie-Ève Pelletier (538 3) 9. Eugénie Bouchard (545 11) 10. Ekaterina Shulaeva (579 2)

Women's Tennis Association: Top ten female singles tennis players from the Americas as of December 6, 2010. 1. Serena Williams (4 ) 2. Venus Williams (5 ) 3. Gisela Dulko (48 ) 4. Bethanie Mattek-Sands (58 ) 5. Melanie Oudin (61 ) 6. Varvara Lepchenko (74 ) 7. Vania King (86 ) 8. Jill Craybas (99 ) 9. Rebecca Marino (105 ) 10. Christina McHale (109 )