Finding Some Solace, if Not a Victory

PARIS - If love is cruel, how about sport?

Just about anyone who saw Rory McIlroy win a prestigious golf tournament on Sunday, only days after breaking off his engagement with Caroline Wozniacki, had to be cheering for Wozniacki to make a strong statement of her own at the French Open.

But it was not to be in the gloom on Court 2 at Roland Garros on Tuesday.

Wozniacki's agent John Tobias and others recommended that she not play at all. Despite her troubles, Wozniacki, the No. 13 seed from Denmark, showed up at the appointed time and place.

'I always wanted to play here,' she said. 'You need to just keep going and keep moving forward. You know this is what I do and is my profession.'

McIlroy publicly announced the end of the engagement, which he said he called off because he realized after the wedding invitations had been sent out that he was not yet ready for marriage, on May 21 after breaking the news to her over the phone.

In light of the circumstances, she did rather well on Tuesday. As her father and coach, Piotr, watched quietly from the front row of the stands, she kept her composure, served for the first set and eventually won the second. But Yanina Wickmayer hit enough big shots and lines to prevail, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-2.

So much for sentimental justice.

'You're not prepared for something like this, and it came as a bit of a shock,' Wozniacki said of the split. 'I just tried to prepare the best that I could and really tried to focus on my match and on what I had to do out there.'

That could not have been easy.

'It's hard enough when your heart is broken; it's really hard when the whole world knows it,' said Martina Navratilova, the nine-time Wimbledon singles champion who often has had to deal with private disappointments made public. 'For me when things were going really well, I played great, and when things were going really badly, the court was kind of a place to hide and lose myself. So I was always able to find solace on the court whether things were going good or going bad. It was kind of an escape in a way, but it's a different time now, and it's just difficult no matter how you look at it. There's never a good time to break up, but for a tennis player, this is a really bad time.'

McIlroy certainly saw the golf course as an escape as he won the European Tour's flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship, in Virginia Water, England, on Sunday.

'When I was inside the ropes, it was a little bit of a release,' he told reporters Sunday. 'I was on my own, doing what I do best, and it gave me four or five hours of serenity or sanctuary, whatever you call it.'

Wozniacki's 2 hours 7 minutes in Wickmayer's company did not look nearly so serene. This was a tricky first-round draw given that Wickmayer was once ranked No. 12 and was a semifinalist at the 2009 United States Open.

But she has a losing record this year and is ranked just 64th after plenty of struggles of her own. She recently revamped her serve with help from specialized cameras at the Kim Clijsters Academy, and even with most sympathies with Wozniacki, it was tough to begrudge her a moment in the sun on another overcast day in Paris.

'I think we all have difficult moments, whether it's with a boyfriend or when you lose someone or when you have a personal issue,' Wickmayer said. 'We all have our personal problems. Everyone is aware of this one because they are such a famous couple. But there are other players who have personal problems and people don't know. I think she's strong enough to get through it.'

Recent injuries to her wrist and knee have kept Wozniacki from playing a full schedule this spring. 'I felt a little bit rusty out there, and it wasn't really a pretty match, but, you know, I tried,' she said.

Once No. 1, Wozniacki remains a world-class defender and tenacious opponent, but she seemed muted during and after this defeat.

'I don't really want to talk about my personal life,' Wozniacki said in a statement before the start of her news conference Tuesday. 'I hope that you all can understand that. The only thing I really have to say is that, you know, thank everybody for their support and sweet messages. That's really nice.'

The next event on Wozniacki's schedule is the grass-court tournament in Eastbourne, England, but it is possible she might ask for a wild card in Birmingham, England, the week before.

Tennis certainly has had high-profile breakups. Two of the greatest American players, Chris Evert and Jimmy Connors, broke off their engagement in the 1970s; Clijsters and the Australian star Lleyton Hewitt did the same in 2004. Wozniacki's relationship with McIlroy was particularly public, with both regularly attending each other's tournaments and posting updates on social media.

'This is a sensitive and delicate issue,' Evert said of their split in an email Tuesday. 'Everyone handles these situations different, and I don't know them personally. I always marveled at the way they could support one another, but it was obvious there was a price which was reflected in both of their play.

'For me, I had to be 'married' to my tennis in terms of doing whatever it took to be the best I could be. Trust me, Jimmy and I traveled around the world for each other for two and a half years, and then it hit both of us at the same time. It just wasn't going to work. I couldn't be there for him. He couldn't be there for me. The emotions were up and down. The mental focus suffered, and traveling around the world for each other was too much.

'We both wanted to be No. 1, and even though we cared about each other, knew it wasn't going to work. We needed consistency, stability, focus and a clear mind, which was so important in our games. In the long run, it was the best thing, as I hope it will be for Caroline and Rory. But again, it's hard to make judgments, because I really don't know them.'

What was clear on Tuesday was that in the short run, Wozniacki is reeling.

Lokasi:

Share :