Wozniacki wants critics to eat humble pie

Caroline Wozniacki wants to go up to The Peak. It is one of the few things she hasn't ticked off on her Hong Kong checklist. It could also be her sub-conscious talking as she tries to climb back up the world rankings.

Around this time last year, Wozniacki was on top of the world. Despite not having won a grand slam title, Denmark's best-known tennis player was top of the WTA world rankings having ascended to the summit at the end of 2010 and then holding on to it for 67 weeks.

But then she plummeted down the list in 2012 to fall to No 10, her current position as she arrives in Hong Kong for the BNP Paribas Showdown exhibition against Li Na in eight days.

Falling from No 1 to 10 might be interpreted as a disaster but Wozniacki was quick to shoot that suggestion down in an interview with the Sunday Morning Post.

Question: "We would think that 2012 was a year to forget considering you went from No 1 to No 10. Was there any reason for that?"

Answer, from a possibly irate Wozniacki in Dubai: "To be honest, it's not a year I would like to forget. I think it is still a good year when I'm at No 10. A lot of players would still like to be in my position. I think it is difficult to understand that if you haven't played yourself, so there's a lot of attention and everyone wants to do well and do even better. But to be honest, I am very proud of the way I have played in the past five years where I have been in the top 10 for all of that time."Advantage Wozniacki.

She has been turning up in Hong Kong since 2007 when she first appeared at the Watsons Water Champions Challenge as a tall 16-year-old in the company of another blonde, Maria Sharapova. She has been a regular since, playing on a number of occasions in this "lively city where the shopping and the food is great". In recent times, she has accompanied her boyfriend, the world's No 1 golfer Rory McIlroy, whom she has been dating for the past 19 months.