The elimination of Wozniacki in the third round of the French Open suggests that the top players should be resting in the week preceding Grand Slams instead of exerting themselves in lesser tournaments.
Caroline Wozniacki is out of the 2011 French Open having suffered a shock third round defeat at the hands of Daniela Hantuchova. Wozniacki was on form heading into the clay court Slam as she won WTA Brussels just last weekend and for some that might make the upset in Paris all the more shocking.
However perhaps there is a relationship between Wozniacki's decision to challenge for the Brussels title and her early exit from the 2011 French Open as playing in back-to-back weeks can lead to situations where the opponents, in the second week, are better rested.
When one takes a look at the players who challenged for titles in the week immediately preceding the 2011 French Open, what one finds is that the players who did well last week generally did poor this week.
Caroline Wozniacki and Shuai Peng are both examples as they were both finalists from Brussels and they are both out of this year's French Open before the fourth round.
However there are other examples as ATP Nice saw Nicolas Almagro win his 10th clay court title just last weekend but he's out right in the first round of the French this year. Almagro's opponent in Nice was Victor Hanescu and the Romanian did not get any daylight either in search of the third round of Roland Garros.
It's the same story with the semifinalists from Nice as both Tomas Berdych and Alexandr Dolgopolov are out before the fourth round in Paris, with Berdych long gone as a first round upset victim.
Last week in Dusseldorf, Germany played Argentina with Juan Monaco, Florian Mayer, Juan Ignacio Chela, and Philipp Kohlschreiber all taking part. Of those four players only Chela remains alive in the French Open tournament and that might be because of the upsets that have taken place close to him in the draw.
WTA Strasbourg saw Marion Bartoli lose to Andrea Petkovic in the final and both of those players are still alive at the French Open. However you have to wonder if all the matches they've played recently will soon catch up to them as they face possibly less fatigued opponents who did not go on a deep run prior to the French.
Players like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Serena Williams do not typically play in warm-up tournaments in the week immediately preceding a Grand Slam event. They are still active in the sense that they hit the practice courts but it is harder to get injured or exhausted in practice because you dictate your own pace instead of having an opponent move you around.
Those are three players with a combined 38 Grand Slams to their credit in singles and you have to respect their strategic approach to the majors as a result of that.
Wozniacki plays a heavy schedule and it's nice to have a world number one player not snub the smaller events. However smart strategy in the future might be to skip an event that immediately precedes a Grand Slam in that she might better prepare for the more important tournament and perhaps take down the elusive Grand Slam.
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