Caroline Wozniacki is back.
The former World No. 1 and 2018 Australian Open champion returned to competitive tennis at the Canadian Open on Tuesday, showing little sign of rust following a three-plus-year layoff from the game. She beamed as she took the court to an ovation from the Montreal crowd as “Sweet Caroline” played over the public address system.
weeks as the world’s top-ranked player. But her performance was more than encouraging as she seeks to get her game ready for the upcoming US Open.
The match was Wozniacki’s first since a third-round defeat to Ons Jabeur at the 2020 Australian Open. That was on Jan. 23 of that year. Since then, Wozniacki retired from the game and has had two children.
On June 29, she announced in a Vogue article that she was returning to tennis at 33 years old with the intent of playing in the US Open, where she’s twice been a finalist (2009, 2014).
“So I’m going to play the US Open,” Wozniacki wrote. “There’s just an electric atmosphere in New York that I can’t get enough of, and I’ve played so well there for years and years. …
“I’ll start out playing in Montreal just to get back into the groove, and then we’ll all head to New York. After that, I’ll have a couple of months to prepare for Australia, and we’ll take it from there. The Paris Olympics are definitely a goal too.”
She appears well on her way to finding her groove. After the win, Wozniacki spoke about spending the rest of the day with her children, Olivia and James.
“That’s the great part about playing early,” Wozniacki said. “I still have the afternoon with them.”
Next up on the court is a Round of 32 match in Montreal, where she’ll face the winner between World No. 10 Marketa Vondrousova and 33rd-ranked Mayar Sherif. That match promises to be a much stiffer test.