Former No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki Announces Tennis Return After Three-Year Retirement

The former top-ranked player says she plans to compete again this summer.

Caroline Wozniacki, the former top ranked player in women’s singles, is returning to tennis after a three-year retirement. Wozniacki stepped away from the sport in 2020 in large part due to her battle with rheumatoid arthritis that left her in constant pain but says she’s returning to the sport in the latest issue of Vogue. 

During her time off, she had two children and tells the story of how she decided to make a comeback. While at the beach with her family, she was sitting with her husband David Lee, a former NBA forward, and simply said, “I’ve been hitting it well.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I’ve been watching.”

“Should I come back?” she asked

“Honestly, why not?” Lee said. “We only live once.”

“So I’m going to play the US Open,” Wozniacki wrote in Vogue. “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. Also, David was a New York Knick for five seasons—we both love it there. 

“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.”

Wozniacki, 32, added that the long break from tennis has done “wonders” for her recovery and she’s in a much better place than when she left the sport both physically and mentally. The U.S. Open is set to start August 28.