Three-and-a-half years after her last match on the WTA Tour, Caroline Wozniacki is making her return.
The former world No. 1 made the shock announcement in June that she is returning to the court, having given birth to two children since stepping away following the 2020 Australian Open.
She says thought of a comeback initially started during a practice session.
“I feel like I’m hitting it better than I ever have. Am I making that up?” she asked her father.
After a positive confirmation, plans for a return gathered pace, and Wozniacki will play her first match as a mother at the Canadian Open on Tuesday, August 8. And she is not just looking to make a return, she is looking to return to the top.
“Can I win the US Open? I think so. Can I win the Australian Open? I think so. That’s why I’m doing this. And I guess we’ll see what happens,” she said in her comeback announcement.
The ambitions sound lofty, and winning the US Open, which starts in a few weeks, having not played any competitive action since the start of 2020, would surely top all Wozniacki’s previous career achievements, which include winning the 2018 Australian Open, the 2017 WTA Finals, and spending 71 weeks as world No. 1.
But Wozniacki making a speedy return to the top does not seem as improbable as it once did.
Wozniacki’s close friend Serena Williams has shown it can be done. Having won the 2017 Australian Open when she was pregnant, Williams returned the next year and made back-to-back finals at Wimbledon and the US Open.
Victoria Azarenka has also made a successful return after giving birth, so too Elina Svitolina, who made the French Open quarters and Wimbledon semis this year, having only come back to the tour as a mother in April.
Wozniacki, though, will be looking to follow in Kim Clijsters’ footsteps.
Clijsters gave birth in early 2008 and returned in the summer of 2009. Just like Wozniacki, she received wild cards to play the Canadian Open, the Cincinnati Open, and the US Open. And in New York she beat both Williams sisters on her way to the final, where she overcame – guess who? – Wozniacki to lift the title.
Wozniacki, who was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 2018, played the legends event at the French Open this year along with Clijsters, who said it was “pretty obvious she was at a different level than most of us”.
“She can make it really tough for a lot of them,” added Clijsters.
“So it’ll be very, very, very interesting to see how some of those big hitters will do against somebody who is very consistent, who is bringing a lot of shots back to you.”
Williams took several months after her return before she was close to her best level. For Azarenka the journey back to the top after giving birth was longer.
“If I didn’t believe in myself, I wouldn’t be doing this,” said Wozniacki when she announced her return. At her best, Wozniacki’s strengths were her defensive skills, her counter-punching ability, and court coverage that saw her once dubbed the ‘golden retriever’. Can she absorb everything the likes of Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina have to throw at her? Wozniacki seems to think so.
“I have fought tough players before and fought my way around so I am going to do the same this time.
“Obviously there are a lot of good players out there and it is a high level of tennis but I played with the greatest of all time in Serena. She’s the best player I ever played and she isn’t around anymore so that feels good to me at the moment!”
Clijsters thinks one of the biggest challenges for Wozniacki could be getting to grips with balancing her new life off the court with the demands needed to excel on the court.
“When you get into a situation like that when you’re a mother but you also become a professional athlete again, you have an expectation of how you did it before and the time that goes into it,” Clijsters said.
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“That was for me a little bit hard at the beginning to balance, am I going to put six, seven hours a day focusing on myself again and how do I feel about that?
“You have to leave your daughter or your kids behind so I struggled a little bit with that in the beginning but then you learn that there’s other people that are really good at taking care of your kids too.
“I think that was a little bit of a challenge mentally to get that motherly instinct – you don’t push it aside but you have to balance that so you have enough of both. I think that will be probably the biggest challenge at the beginning.”
Wozniacki, who has been practising with fellow Dane Holger Rune, opens in Montreal against qualifier Kimberly Birrell on Tuesday. She could then face Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova in the second round.
That would be an intriguing early tester of Wozniacki’s level as she starts her comeback.
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