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Media says Sweet Caroline is boring? Boring only to the boring minded!
I can’t believe some of the Aussie media wrote that Caroline Wozniacki was “boring” in her press conferences. She’s actually one of the best interviews in all of tennis – a popular and well-liked subject at the U.S. Open, whether she receives interesting questions or not.
Not that any proof is needed, but here is an interview feature I did with Sweet Caroline about her interest in boxing training which was published in British “Boxing News” weekly magazine…
WHY I LIKE BOXING: CAROLINE WOZNIACKI
TENNIS champ Caroline Wozniacki wanted to change her exercise routine after Wimbledon, so she decided to add boxing training to her workout regime.
“I wanted to do something different for the fitness. I thought, outside tennis, let me try boxing,” says the 19-year-old who was born in Odense and resides in Copenhagen, Denmark.
“A little bit – the motions, the footwork – reminds me of tennis. And I like how the boxers get in the great shape. So I wanted to try it. So I asked a friend [Mikkel Kessler] if he knows someone to coach me. He found someone for me and it’s working great.”
The results have been immediate. This summer, Wozniacki defended her title by winning the New Haven event on the WTA Sony Ericsson Tour for the second year in a row. It was her third title of 2009.
Then as the No. 9 seed at the recent US Open, Wozniacki came of age. Having never passed the fourth round of any grand slam event in three years, Wozniacki scored by far her best result in New York.
She lost only one set en route to the final, winning six matches – including a 2-6, 7-6, 7-6 classic in the fourth round against former US Open titleholder and reigning Roland Garros champion Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia.
Wozniacki was defeated 7-5, 6-3 in the finals by Belgium’s former world No. 1 Kim Clijsters, who was in top form herself, having eliminated both Williams sisters.
Wozniacki says her boxing workout concentrates on her hands, feet and core. “It always starts on the treadmill, where I run for 40 minutes. And then intervals and running long distance,” says the popular 5ft 9in blonde who weighs in at the lightweight division.
“Then I go in the ring and shadowbox a little bit. Then we do a lot with the medicine balls, where you throw them, and a lot of work for the core and back as well. I also do shadowboxing, punching the bags and also the big, heavy bag.”
Her favourite drill? “I love being in the ring where the coach has the pads. I think that is a lot of fun,” she says.
How often does she work on her boxing? “For four weeks I do six days a week. I do the running part during the tournaments. I don’t do the boxing part. I prefer to relax the upper body.”
When asked how she feels boxing benefits her tennis, she replies, “I’ve become faster. My footwork has been faster, doing a lot of running. I see the ball differently, I think, because you always need to be prepared for what’s coming next. When I do boxing, I think that helps your concentration as well.”
Her favourite boxing movie? “Rocky Balboa,†she says.
Unexpectedly, she reveals that her very first memory of boxing includes seeing Mike Tyson in living colour.
“Actually, I went to watch Tyson when he was boxing in Copenhagen against Brian Nielsen. That was many years ago [October 2001], so I think I was about 10.
“My dad [Piotr, former pro soccer player who was born in Poland] is a huge boxing fan. He loves to watch all the fights. Since I was little, he watched boxing always. And then he asked me if I wanted to go. And I always did everything my bother [Patrik] and my father was doing. I thought it was going to be very exciting and it was like, packed, packed inside. It was such a different atmosphere. I remember Tyson won and how exciting it was to see them live and how they were actually hitting each other. I remember the atmosphere, the way all the people around were totally into it. It was so intimate.”
She and Kessler have friends in common. “That’s the way we met,” she says. “He’s also living in Monaco, like me. I met him at different times. We went to restaurant with some friends. He’s such a nice guy – very down to earth.”
Some of her favourite boxers to watch include Kessler, Vitali Klitschko and Joe Calzaghe.
“I watched his fight with Mikkel on TV because it was in Cardiff and I was somewhere else. I like watching Calzaghe because he was so fast. And he almost never gets punched. I like the way he saw the moves before the other boxer actually could attempt to try to hit him.”
Now ranked at No. 6 in the world, Wozniacki says she will continue to work her boxing program into her fitness regimen and at the rate of improvement her tennis game has shown since starting, one could reasonably expect to see her achieving her first grand slam victory in 2010.
But does the tennis stunner ever imagine herself competing as a boxer? “No,” she says with a smile. “I like to hit on the pads and the heavy bag. But I don’t like when somebody has to hit me.”
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