Friends and Rivals in Indian Wells

INDIAN WELLS, California—Shopping, talking about boys, painting nails, eating out and generally having a good time are common everyday occurrences between best friends, including two of tennis’ biggest rising stars, Agnieszka Radwanska and Caroline Wozniacki.

But on Friday in Indian Wells, friendship will take a back seat as the two buddies compete against each other for a berth in the 2010 BNP Paribas Open championship match.

Caroline Wozniacki has been friends with Agnieszka Radwanska and her younger sister Urszula for years. Caroline and Agnieszka have been playing tournaments together since they were kids, navigating the waters of junior tennis together in Europe. They turned professional within three months of each other and ironically, both won their first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour titles at the same tournament in Stockholm one year apart.

Not only are Caroline and Agnieszka chums, but their families are close as well. Piotr and Anna, Caroline’s parents, and Robert and Marta, Agnieszka’s parents, are good friends and even tease each other, according to Caroline.

That good-natured teasing extends to their daughters as well. While a spot in the final is on the line, there is actually something more at stake.

“If somebody wins something, it’s buy the other one dinner,” Radwanska said Wednesday after reaching the semifinals.

The two women have been spending a lot of time together since arriving in Indian Wells, even having dinner on a couple of occasions. When asked what they normally talk about, Caroline laughed. “Clothes, fashion, makeup, nail polish, boys,” listed Wozniacki on Wednesday. “I don’t know. Everything.”

One thing is always absent from their mealtime conversations—tennis.

“We don’t talk about tennis. There’s so many other things we want to talk about, so we prefer just to have a totally different conversation,” Wozniacki said.

“There are so many other interesting things and we have so much tennis in our daily life and we practice so much, we work so hard. So when you have the opportunity just to relax, it’s nice just to have the brain think about something else.”

Since turning pro in 2005, the pair has met just twice and is tied in their head-to-head record. Regardless of who wins Friday, Radwanska is confident that their friendship will not be impacted.

“For sure if she wins, it doesn’t make any changes with our relationship,” Radwanska said. Caroline agreed that the only way to succeed is to keep their relationship and on-court competitive instincts separate.

“You have to keep professional in that way and see that little yellow ball and hit it inside the lines and over the net. That’s really important that you do that,” Wozniacki said.

“Because once you start thinking, okay, it’s my friend, what happens, then you lose the match. So it’s just important to stay focused and don’t think about who’s on the other side.”

However, Caroline still wants to make sure that she’s the one picking up the tab next time they eat out. “I hope I’m gonna buy dinner.”