NEW YORK — At the US Open on Saturday, Caroline Wozniacki stepped up to the baseline for her opening service game. Then she did what she almost always does.
On the first point of her match with Jessika Ponchet, Wozniacki served out “wide” to her opponent’s forehand. On the next two points, she aimed serves down the center line, or the “T.” On the fourth point, she went wide on the ad court. Wide, T, T, wide.
It’s a pattern that Wozniacki, remarkably, has been repeating with very little deviation for several years. When her first serve misses its intended mark, it’s less rigid — she might change the service direction then — but on first serve, for the first four points of each game, the pattern is often the same.
If a game goes beyond four points, Wozniacki changes to something seemingly more random. According to analysis from TennisAbstract.com in 2019, she stays true to her plans around 80% of the time.
Against Nao Hibino in Round 1 in New York on Tuesday, Wozniacki made just one change from her routine in the first set, aiming into the body on the second point at 4-0. In the second set, she made only two clear switch-ups. Hibino, who had never played Wozniacki before, was crushed 6-0, 6-1.
In the second round, against Renata Zarazua, she made just two clear changes in the first set. Against Ponchet in Round 3, she made only four deviations in the first set. In the opening game of the second, she changed her pattern completely, to T-wide-wide-T, but she soon returned to the plan, with just one exception.
At Wimbledon this year, it was much the same story. In her first-round win over Alycia Parks, Wozniacki went wide-T-T-wide on the first four points every time in the first set. Against Leylah Fernandez in the second round, she changed only once in the first set. There were more changes in the second and third sets, but even then, she stuck to the blueprint on the first four points 28 times out of 40. In her 15 service games, her first serve was aimed wide 14 times.
Maybe Elena Rybakina got the message in Round 3, when she beat Wozniacki 6-0, 6-1. Outplayed in the first set when she deviated four times, the former world No. 1 changed things…
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