When former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki announced that she was retiring from tennis after the 2020 Australian Open, she said in an Instagram post that she’d “accomplished everything I could ever dream of on the court.”
But after a three-plus-year hiatus, it appears Wozniacki has more to accomplish on the court after all.
Wozniacki, 32, said in a first-person article published Thursday by Vogue that she plans to return to competition at the U.S. Open in August. The U.S. Open confirmed Wozniacki will receive a wild-card entry to the main draw.
“I’ll start out playing in Montreal just to get back into the groove, and then we’ll all head to New York,” she said in the article. “After that, I’ll have a couple of months to prepare for Australia, and we’ll take it from there. The Paris Olympics [in 2024] are definitely a goal too.”
The “we” she’s referring to consists of her husband David Lee, the former Knicks forward, and her children, Olivia and James.
Wozniacki was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 2018, but in her retirement announcement in 2020 she said stepping away from the game “has nothing to do with my health and this isn’t a goodbye.”
Wozniacki lost to Ons Jabeur in the third round of the 2020 Australian Open.
“Three years ago, having achieved almost everything I’d ever set out to do, I walked away from the professional tour,” Wozniacki said in Vogue. “I wanted to start a family, and I needed a break. I had no idea how long that break would last.”
Wozniacki said she began setting up sessions on the court again late last year and felt like she was “hitting it better than I ever have.” After consulting her father and husband, she decide she “had to get back out there.”
The Danish star won 30 singles titles including the 2018 Australian Open title for her lone Grand Slam victory over a 15-year pro career. She was the runner-up at the 2009 and 2014 U.S. Open.
Wozniacki said she recently had dinner with Serena Williams, who offered her support in Wozniacki’s comeback.
“I think that Serena doesn’t get nearly enough credit for getting to so many Grand Slam finals after having [Williams’ daughter] Olympia,” Wozniacki said. “Her retirement will always be bittersweet, both for me and for so many other players, because she’s meant so much to women’s tennis. She paved the way for so many of us — she showed us that anything is possible.”
Wozniacki highlighted the differences for professional men’s and women’s tennis players when it comes to starting families, noting that Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray didn’t have to stop playing to have children.
“For the women, though, it’s mostly been either/or, and I’d like to be part of changing this,” Wozniacki said. “Victoria Azarenka, Kim Clijsters, and Serena have already shown what it takes to have a child and return to the tour. It’s not easy by any means, but it is possible.”
