Baseline Award: The asterisk removers

Across the last two weeks of December, Baseline will dish out awards for the greatest acts of 2018.

Throughout history, every professional sport has seen athletes who’ve established themselves among the best but have fallen short in that ultimate benchmark: winning the most prestigious prize or prizes their field has to offer.

Going into 2018, Simona Halep and Caroline Wozniacki were running neck and neck among the ranks of the best players to never win a Grand Slam. Between them, the two had reached four major finals, reached the pinnacle of the game at some point in their careers and won dozens of other titles.

At the Australian Open this year, Halep and Wozniacki found themselves across the net from each other in the championship match, with the opportunity to emerge from the list of the Slamless.

Having closed off 2017 with her biggest career win at the WTA Finals, Wozniacki—who’d gone through multiple ups and downs the past several years—topped Halep in three tight sets for the Australian title.

For Halep, the top seed, it was her third loss in a Slam final, with the other two defeats coming at the French Open. Paris always represented her best chance to win a Slam, and this year, she was finally able to complete the task as she rallied to top Sloane Stephens in the final for her first major victory.

Though neither one of them were able to make an impact at Wimbledon or the US Open, Halep and Wozniacki broke free from the masses of the greats who didn’t get it done at the end to lift themselves into loftier company.

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