Roger Federer advanced to the Australian Open final in Melbourne, where he will face Marin Cilic in the men's championship match. USA TODAY Sports
MELBOURNE, Australia – It might be time to call Caroline Wozniacki the "Great Dane" now that she’s a Grand Slam champion.
It took three trips to a final, but the 27-year-old finally became the first player from Denmark to achieve Grand Slam fame.
Wozniacki fell backward onto the court and shed tears of joy when Halep, serving at 4-5, 30-40 in the third set, netted a backhand on the only match point of the stunning 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-4 battle of attrition that lasted 2 hours, 49 minutes on Saturday night.
“To be here today is a dream come true,” Wozniacki said, hugging the trophy, and later announced “she’s taking it home and going to sleep with it tonight."
“I want to congratulate Simona and I’m sorry I had to win today.”
Halep didn’t hesitate from crediting Wozniacki for having more to give when it counted.
“I can still smile,” said Halep, who is now 0-3 in Grand Slam finals. “It's fine. I cried, but now I'm smiling. It’s just a tennis match in the end. I'm really sad I couldn't win it. I was close again. She was better. She was fresher. She had actually more energy in the end.”
Not only did the second-seeded Wozniacki become a Grand Slam champion, she also will return to No. 1 player in the world status come Monday morning. It’s been exactly six years since Wozniacki last held the No. 1 ranking.
During Wozniacki’s previous 67-week run in the No. 1 ranking, which commenced in October 2010, she was constantly badgered about holding that distinction without winning one of the four most important titles in the sport.
That will no longer be a problem.
“Honestly, I think that's one of the most positive things about all of this,” she said, smiling. “I'm never going to get that question again. I'm just waiting for the question, ‘When are you going to win the second one?’”
This is the first time that the No. 1 ranking has been up for grabs in a Grand Slam match since the 2012 Australian Open final that Victoria Azarenka won against Maria Sharapova.
This championship match was the first in the Open era where the No. 1 and No. 2 players in the world met for a Grand Slam title with neither having already won a major.
Both players arrived on court having played in two previous Grand Slam finals – Wozniacki in the 2009 and 2014 U.S. Open, Halep in the 2014 and 2017 French Open.
Both players also came into the match having to stave off match points in earlier matches at Melbourne Park this month.
In the second round, Wozniacki was 1-5 down in the third set, and had to fend off two match points before turning back 119th-ranked Jana Fett of Croatia 3-6, 6-2, 7-5.
“From being almost out of the tournament to sitting here with the Australian Open trophy, it's amazing,” she said. “It's been quite a turnaround, something I'm very proud of.”
Halep saved triple match points in her 3-hour, 44-minute third-round match against American Lauren Davis, and saved two match points when playing Angelique Kerber in the semifinals.
Four other women in the Open era have saved at least one match point en-route to becoming the Australian Open champion: Monica Seles in 1991, Jennifer Capriati in 2002, Serena Williams in 2003 and 2005, and Angelique Kerber in 2016.
As recently as 18 months ago, Wozniacki was coming off a host of injuries and ranked No. 74 heading into the 2016 U.S. Open, where she surprisingly reached the semifinals. Since then, she’s been on a course of destiny to Grand Slam success.
Wozniacki, who had never before won a set in a Grand Slam final, has reached the final of the last three tournaments she played. She won the year-end WTA Finals last October, was a finalist at the Auckland tournament earlier this month and now claimed victory here at Melbourne Park.
On a hot, steamy night under the lights on Rod Laver Arena, the players were able to take a 10-minute break after the second set under the WTA heat rule.
Despite the undesirable conditions, the combatants offered fans all the drama they could desire in a championship match. No matter how tired they felt, neither Wozniacki or Halep stopped fighting. The points were exhaustingly long and physically demanding.
Halep, who turned over her ankle in the first round, said both feet hurt during the final. After serving to 3-2 in the second set, she had the doctor and trainer on-court complaining of a headache and feeling dizzy.
“I felt ready,” Halep said. “But the body was not ready because I had so many long matches. The muscles were tired. The feet were not good enough. But mentally I was ready.”
Halep, the first Romanian to appear in an Australian Open final, will drop back to being the second-ranked player after 17 weeks in the top position. She came into the match on an 11-0 winning streak having captured the Shenzen, China, title ahead of the Australian Open.
The Romanian was more of the risk-taker on the court, posting 40 winners and 47 unforced errors to 25 winners and 28 unforced errors. But it turned out that while Wozniacki was far more aggressive than usual, her steadier play in key moments provided the advantage.
After Wozniacki surrendered her serve in the seventh game of the third set, she had the trainer on-court to tape support her left knee, which has periodically bothered her.
Having the knee patched proved to be a winning strategy. She won the next three games to take home her first Grand Slam trophy.
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