Caroline Wozniacki has returned to tennis at the U.S Open as if she has never been away. Her comeback even gave in-form Coco Gauff a major scare.
Caroline Wozniacki’s comeback has worked a treat even if this is as good as it gets. After a three-and-a-half-year hiatus, Wozniacki hit the ground running, jumping and beaming into the last 16 at the U.S. Open. An in-form Coco Gauff was a step too far – just- but the Dane star negotiated the first business week back in the big time as if she had never been away.
Wozniacki has unlearned nothing with her racquet since retiring just before COVID burst the tennis touring bubble. Sometimes a second life at the old job works a treat. It’s all about timing. To walk straight back into Flushing Meadows with that self-belief is something else.
Sporting comebacks can often be viewed with a measure of disdain by critics. If retirement isn’t terminal then why the big announcement? Players are allowed to change their minds in a world where each historic sentence is used as evidence in the court of social media. Steve Redgrave once promised that he would never be seen in a boat again. Another Olympic gold followed. Wozniacki merely said that chances of a return were “very slim”. It so happens that the 2018 Australian Open champion has a second wind, and it’s sizzling better than Danish bacon.
Wozniacki has always been a good player to watch. She has an aura. Her game has been based on a solid, brick wall defense, not necessarily a thing of beauty, but her sheer competitiveness and presence are tangible. She enjoys the arena, the stage of life.
