KEY POINTS:
Meteoric doesn't really get close to describing 2008 for ASB Classic number two seed Caroline Wozniacki.
The Dane began the year with a world ranking of 60 and ended it at No 12. Up and up she climbed as the tournament victories accumulated. She won in Stockholm, New Haven then Tokyo and by the end of the year she had pocketed more than $700,000.
Nice work indeed and the 18-year-old is in no doubt as to the secret of her success. She skipped her last scheduled tournament of 2007 and spent a month and a half building her strength and fitness.
It reaped huge dividends as she started the year feeling fresh and stronger than at any other time in her career and made the fourth round of the Australian Open.
That sent her confidence soaring and, as she says: "I just went from there. I took a month and a half off to work on my preparation and fitness-wise I felt really good."
The fact she played so well in Melbourne was also a factor in fast-tracking her confidence. "These [Grand Slams] are the most important events on the tour. That's the one you want to win and you know that if you can do it there..."
The self-belief Wozniacki took from Australia and her three tournament wins stayed with her for the year and surfaced at the other three Grand Slams where she made the third round at both Wimbledon and the French Open and then the fourth round at Flushing Meadow.
All that success turned her into a celebrity in her homeland. She says she's comfortable being recognised every time she leaves her house in Copenhagen.
"That is what you are training for," she says in regard to her fame. "It is good that people recognise the hard work you are putting in but it is also hard to keep your private life private."
For the moment, she can live with the intrusion. Her status is such that she is encouraging a tennis boom in Denmark. Wozniacki says that now, when she trains at any local club in Denmark, she is made aware that there are some young children who are there because she inspired them. There are wannabe Wozniackis springing up all over the country and she hopes that in time, Denmark will become as big a tennis power as Sweden.
Her goal for the ASB Classic is to get as much match practice as she can. She is as fit as she was this time last year and just needs to build her rhythm and get back into the competitive mentality ahead of the Australian Open.
Having been drawn against a qualifier in the first round, she should be able to break herself in gently.
