The next-to-last point of the Australian Open final between Simona Halep
and Caroline Wozniacki was the match in microcosm. For more than two and
a half hours, the two players had shown tenacity and stamina and skill.
It was nearly ninety degrees and brutally humid. Their bodies, pushed
hard over the two-week tournament and three tight sets in the finals,
were breaking down. It had been an uneven match, but there were long
stretches of brilliance from both. They yanked each other from side to
side, traded clean winners, dug out balls with defense, and dared each
other to hit a good—and then a better—shot. Halep had been throwing her
whole body into her whipping forehand. Wozniacki attacked with a fluid
backhand. Both players are quick and natural movers, and they contested
every shot.

Serving at 4–5, 30–30, Halep knew she had to make a first serve. She had
double-faulted the point before, an error that likely said less about
tight nerves than sheer exhaustion. For much of the third set, she had
trouble pushing up for leverage on her serve; her legs were gone. She
had put them through a lot. In the first round of the tournament, Halep
badly rolled her ankle, landing on it so awkwardly that it seemed
improbable that she could finish the match, let alone play deep into the
tournament. Then, in the third round, she faced an inspired Lauren
Davis, grinding out long rallies and trading aggressive shots in one of
the most dramatic and well-played matches in recent memory. After nearly
four hours, during which she saved multiple match points, Halep won the
third set, 15–13. Then she played another epic match, against a
resurgent Angelique Kerber, in which she saved yet more match points
before winning 6–3, 4–6, 9–7.

Now, against Wozniacki, Halep found herself again playing from behind,
deep in the third set. She was in her third Grand Slam final. She was
the No. 1 player in the world, but there were some who doubted how long
she could hold on to the spot. There were questions about her lack of
power, her serve, her tentative play in big moments, her negative
attitude on court. She had led during the third set in both of her
previous two major finals before losing. She has said that, for months
afterward, her defeat at the French Open, last May, was never far from
her mind.

For Wozniacki, too, the stakes were high. Earlier in her career, she
spent sixty-seven weeks at No. 1, but she was dogged by the criticism
that her ranking was undeserved. People said that she could stockpile
ranking points at smaller tournaments but did not have the aggressive
game needed to win a major; that her style was too defensive; that she
was not adaptable. There were mutterings about magazine covers and photo
shoots. She lost the top ranking in 2012, then suffered a string of
injuries, and quickly seemed to fade from relevance. Like Halep, she had
already played in two major finals and lost both. Like Halep, she was
haunted by what might have been: she recently admitted that she still
thought about the Australian Open semifinal match she narrowly lost to
Li Na, seven years ago. And, like Halep, she had nearly been knocked out
of this tournament—in the second round, she had been down two match
points at 1–5 to Jana Fett, before winning the next six games. Now, if
she won the next two points, she would take Halep’s place at the top—and
this time she would not be a Slam-less No. 1.

Halep spun a serve into Wozniacki’s forehand, and got a return cross
court. As they traded ground strokes, Halep used the depth of her shots
to push Wozniacki off the baseline and take control of the point. A
desperate backhand batted by Wozniacki skipped off the top of the net,
setting up a sitting ball. Halep charged forward and hit it sharply into
the open court. Wozniacki lunged and somehow managed to block back a
lob, which Halep—who conspicuously has no overhead shot—swung-volleyed
to the other corner of the court. Wozniacki was already on the run.
Lunging again, she made the shot. By the time Halep took the reply
sharply to the opposite corner, Wozniacki was already sprinting there.
She hit an impossibly sharp backhand on the run, which pulled Halep
wide, setting up an easy—and astonishing—winner for Wozniacki. The rally
had lasted eighteen shots.

Halep calmly turned back to the baseline, ready for match point. Then
she did something surprising: she smiled.

Wozniacki won the next point, and so the match, 7–6, 3–6, 6–4.

Over the past six months, Halep has changed her game. Her first serve
seems a little bigger, and she backs it more emphatically with her
second one. Once regarded merely as a counterpuncher, she has become
more aggressive. In her two matches against Kerber and Wozniacki, two of
the premier defenders in the game, Halep recorded a jaw-dropping ninety
winners. She took risks at big moments instead of always playing the
safe shot.

And, it seems, she changed herself. Instead of turning inward and
berating herself after loose errors, she remained calm. There was a new
attitude about her: an air of clarity, and joy. There were moments
during the tournament, she admitted, when “the old Simona,” as she put
it, would have given up. You could say that the result was the same as
it had been in May: another winnable final, another loss. But the old
Simona would not have stood straight after bending. She would not have
managed both to smile and to fight.

Wozniacki’s win was a vindication: no one can question her right to the
top spot. Every one of her strengths was on display in the final: her
defensive prowess, her improved serve, her flawless technique. She
showed herself to be grittier than many fans had recognized. She had
always been able to block every ball back. In this match, she did it
with power, and with purpose.

People can point to the absence of Serena Williams as a reason to
discount Wozniacki’s victory. But there shouldn’t be an asterisk. The
women’s side of this tournament was remarkable for its high quality
across the board. It is as if, with Williams gone, the players answered
the challenge implicit in her game: hit harder. Run faster. Serve
bigger. Lunge farther. Be brave.