MELBOURNE, Australia — One by one, former Grand Slam champions welcomed Caroline Wozniacki to the club late Saturday night at Melbourne Park after her 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-4 victory over Simona Halep.
Billie Jean King was first. She handed the beaming Wozniacki the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup, which is awarded to the women’s singles champion at the Australian Open.
Chris Evert and Mats Wilander were next. Rod Laver chimed in on Twitter. So did Serena Williams, Wozniacki’s friend and tennis role model, after watching her breakthrough match on television in the United States.
It took Wozniacki more than a decade to join the club by winning her first major singles title, and it required two final weeks of struggle in Melbourne.
She had to save two match points in the second round and shrug off a mental lapse while serving for the match in the semifinals. She then had to summon the guts, the energy and the accuracy on the run to prevail against Halep, weary but still dangerous, in Saturday’s 2-hour-49-minute final played on a sweltering Australian summer evening.
“I think I had everything else on my résumé,” Wozniacki said later, the trophy glittering by her side. “No. 1, year-end championships, big tournaments, 27 titles. I basically have beaten any player that has been playing that is on tour right now. This was the only thing missing, and it means something extra even that it took a little longer, but I still made it here.”
Halep, a Romanian, will lose her No. 1 ranking to Wozniacki on Monday, and knows all too well about delayed gratification. She is now 0-3 in major single finals and has lost all of them in three sets.
“Maybe the fourth time will be with luck,” she said in remarks to the crowd at Laver Arena, before leaving the court.
“It’s fine,” she said later. “I cried, but now I’m smiling. Is just a tennis match in the end. But yeah, I’m really sad I couldn’t win it. It was close again, but the gas was over in the end. She was better. She was fresher. She had actually more energy in the end.”
This much-anticipated final was tight and tense from the beginning. The spectators sounded as divided as tennis fans in general with roughly equal support being expressed for “Caro!” and “Simona!”
The match turned into a grueling fitness test, with both finalists breathing hard, even on the changeovers. Eventually each took a medical timeout.
Extended rallies were the rule. There were 50 exchanges that lasted nine shots or more, 50 others that lasted from five to eight shots.
This was no surprise in light of the speed and defensive skills that both women possess, but it made for quite a challenge.
Momentum shifted repeatedly. Wozniacki took a 3-0 lead to start before Halep reeled her in to force a tiebreaker that Wozniacki — playing aggressively, particularly down the line — was able to dominate.
Halep won the second set despite taking a medical timeout when leading, 3-2, because of dizziness and a headache. She looked woozy even while closing out the set.
Both players were able to cool down before the third set, with a 10-minute off-court break allowed because of the heat.
The match kept tossing and turning. Wozniacki went up, 3-1, in the third set only to lose three straight games. But just when it seemed that Halep might definitively have the edge, Wozniacki, down, 3-4, took a medical timeout to have her left leg taped below the knee.
After play resumed, she did not lose another game.
Neither Halep nor her coach, Darren Cahill, cried foul over Wozniacki’s break, even though Halep had to wait longer than usual to serve.
“Maybe those three minutes were a little bit tough,” Halep said. “But you know the rule is the rule. I don’t complain.”
With Halep serving at 4-5, 30-30, Wozniacki won one of the match’s best rallies: an 18-shot duel that forced her to sprint from corner to corner and come up with a tightly angled backhand on the run that allowed her to take control and finish the point with a forehand winner.
“That was a crazy point,” Wozniacki said.
It gave her match point, and in light of the way this tournament had gone, the big surprise was that Halep did not find a way to save it.
When Halep’s backhand hit the net, Wozniacki hit the deck, immediately throwing her racket in the air and then crying as she lay on her back with her hands covering her face.
“I never cry, but today is a very emotional moment,” Wozniacki said to the crowd as she cradled the Cup that she was already calling Daphne.
She spared a word for Halep, too.
“I know today is a tough day,” she said, turning to face her opponent. “I’m sorry I had to win today, but I’m sure we’ll have many matches in the future. It was an incredible match, incredible fight, and again, I’m sorry.”
