World No. 1 and US Open champion Iga Swiatek speaks to CNN about the new year and her 2017 world ranking.
Jan. 1, 2018. In a moment of pure joy, Caroline Wozniacki came out from behind the net and kissed her father, Erwin, after beating her French opponent, Alize Cornet, 6-2, 2-6, 6-1, on her way to the second round in the women’s singles main draw of the Australian Open tennis tournament.
At the time, Jan. 1, 2018, she had not been ranked No. 1 in the world in over two years. On Sunday afternoon, she had ascended to the No. 1 spot. No. 1 in the world. Wozniacki was the first woman to earn a Grand Slam trophy in more than two years, since Maria Sharapova won the US Open in 2015.
The 2017 US Open champion holds the No. 1 spot in the world since Feb. 27, 2016, when she came from behind to defeat Venus Williams in the quarterfinals and then beat Serena Williams, then ranked No. 3, 6-1, 6-0, in the semifinals.
It was a meteoric rise for the 23-year-old Wozniacki, who had not reached even the third round of a Grand Slam since losing to Simona Halep in the French Open quarterfinals in 2014. But she has made her mark on the women’s tour: the 2016 US Open champion and world No. 1 entered the Australian Open as the No. 2 seed. She lost in the third round to Naomi Osaka.
Wozniacki is the first woman since Sharapova in 2015 to win two Grand Slam doubles titles. The last woman to win a Grand Slam without losing to a male player — and without losing to a woman — was Marion Bartoli, in 1994. Sharapova and Serena Williams are the only women to have won Grand Slam titles without going past the last round in consecutive years.
“I don’t know the reasons why I have so many people supporting me,” the Canadian said in an interview with CNN. “But I’m very grateful.”
When Wozniacki won her second singles title in