Time for Wozniacki to deliver as ex-champions prepare to pounce

If she walks away with the Venus Rosewater Dish on finals day, that would hush even the loudest critics, but the Dane’s status will be questioned once more should she again fall short in a grand slam.

Aside from a brief period in February, Wozniacki has topped the women’s rankings since October of last year, when she beat Petra Kvitova at the China Open to end Serena Williams’s year-long reign.

However for all her consistency and solid play in routine tour events, the 20-year-old will not be widely accepted, whatever the rankings say, as the best in the world until she begins winning grand slams.

Wozniacki has picked up 16 tour titles during her six-year professional career, but just one grand slam final showing is not much of a return for a No 1.

She lost to Kim Clijsters in the 2009 US Open final and reached the New York semi-finals 12 months later before getting to the same stage in the Australian Open at the start of this year.

But Wozniacki was knocked out in the third round at Roland Garros last month to fuel the argument that she does not deserve her current ranking.

Her record at Wimbledon does not make for good reading either. Despite winning the 2006 girls’ tournament, Wozniacki has struggled on grass. Last year she bowed out to unseeded Kvitova in the fourth round, winning just two games, and that matched her best performance in SW19.

She acknowledges the questions surrounding her top ranking, and is committed to ending her wait this year.

“My main goal this year is to be a grand slam champion,” Wozniacki said. “I want to win one. It would be disastrous if I could not make it happen. I just want to enjoy every time I play on the court.”

Former champion Maria Sharapova is arguably better equipped than contenders like the French Open champion Li Na. The Russian returns in good form to the tournament where she won her first slam at 17.

And who would bet against multiple champions, the Williams sisters, shrugging off their inactivity to triumph again on Centre Court?

The women’s game may have opened up since the Williams sisters’ lost their stranglehold, largely due to injuries.

It is therefore yet to produce anyone who looks remotely capable of dominating the game in the way both Venus and Serena managed.