It's telling that Caroline Wozniacki's three biggest headlines since the start of 2015 have been her two Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue appearances and her brief romance with Houston Texans linebacker J.J. Watt.
At this point of her career, Wozniacki is in danger of becoming more famous for being famous than for her tennis career.
The former No. 1 women's tennis player's game has suffered a slow and steady decline since her 2014 U.S. Open finals appearance against best friend Serena Williams. The latest evidence was her first-round loss to Chinese wildcard Zhang Shuai in a grueling three-set, first-round match at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.
Wozniacki blew a 6-4, 4-2 lead, falling 10-8 in a second-set tiebreaker and ultimately losing 4-6, 7-6, 7-5.
Chair Umpire, WTA Official Incompetence Cheats Caroline Wozniacki Out Of Point
On set point during the second set, Zhang "played a beautiful return point, blasting an overhead, causing a loud 'Come on!' from Zhang as she took the second set," Vavel.com reported. "Zhang's celebration prompted Wozniacki to complain to chair umpire Felix Torralba, believing the Chinese broke the intentional hindrance rule, with Wozniacki saying Zhang yelled 'Come on!' before the point was over."
Wozniacki was overruled, adding to her nightmarish 2016 that is beginning to resemble Eugenie Bouchard's nightmarish 2015. That included a bizarre lost point when an umpire overruled an out call against foe Dominika Cibulkova in which the umpire and tournament referee failed to recognize that she still got the point back over the net, which should've resulted in playing the point over.
The Danish star is 7-6 so far in 2016 and has not defeated a player ranked higher than No. 35, according to her WTA profile. Her losses have been to players ranked Nos. 84, 118, 66, 76, 30 and now 69 in Zhang -- although Zhang is streaking up the rankings, having beaten then No. 2 Simona Halep during her run to the Australian Open quarterfinals.
Bouchard went 12-18 in 2015, dropping from No. 7 to No. 49. Her year included 18 losses in 23 matches and 10 losses in 11 matches.
Wozniacki lost in the first round of the Australian Open. She currently is No. 25 in the world, her lowest ranking since she was last ranked No. 1 in 2011. After her breakup with then-fiancé Rory McIlroy in 2014, Wozniacki's inner strength showed as she climbed up from No. 16 to No. 5 and advance to the U.S. Open final, looming as the biggest rival to Serena.
But Wozniacki never has followed up 2014 and seems to in a freefall.
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