Caroline Wozniacki wins the Australian Open, her first grand slam title

Caroline Wozniacki has won her first Grand Slam, besting Simona Halep in the final of the 2018 Australian Open. Wozniacki is the first player from Denmark to win a Grand Slam singles title, and she moves to No. 1 in the world. It wasn’t an easy match, and she needed three sets to pull off the win, 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-4.

Halep, the top seed at the Australian Open, has lost all three Grand Slam finals that she’s taken part in. She’s been a high-ranked player for years, but can’t seem to get the finish she needs. She has now lost to Wozniacki in five of seven meetings.

It was a very close match, and the stat sheet doesn’t necessarily tell the story of what happened. Wozniacki hit fewer aces, more double faults, had fewer first serves in, won a lower percentage of break points and hit drastically fewer winners.

Wozniacki converted on just five of 14 break point attempts, while Halep converted on five of 12. Halep hit 40 winners to Wozniacki’s 25, but still came out on the losing end. Halep is now 0-3 in Grand Slam finals, while Wozniacki is 1-2, having previously made the finals of the US Open twice before.

Halep’s run through the bracket included some fantastic matches, including a drubbing of Eugenie Bouchard in round two, a marathon match against Lauren Davis that included a 15-13 tiebreak in the third set, and strong wins over sixth seed Karolina Pliskova and 21st seed Angelique Kerber.

Wozniacki’s run was also impressive, taking down No. 30 Kiki Bertens and No. 19 Magdalena Rybarikova in straight sets. In the semifinal, she faced Elise Mertens, an unseeded player who bested Elina Svitolina, the fourth seed and favorite to win, in the previous round. She also notched a win over a former top 10 player in Carla Suarez Navarro.

The men’s singles final will feature the second seed, Roger Federer, up against Marin Cilic, the sixth seed.