Caroline Wozniaki From World Number One to Comeback

[jimlosaltos]

Your May TPN Tour Portrait on former world number one and Australian Open champ Caroline Wozniaki, covers events from 2010, 11, 13, 14 but mainly this March in Indian Wells. I labelled the date on images from the earlier tournaments. Caroline returned to tennis after having two children with her husband David Lee, a former NBA player with the New York Knicks. To my surprise, Woz was playing Iga, in a match up of world number one vs a long-ago number one, to a near standstill this March until she retired with a toe injury.

Please click this link to see her Tour Portrait.

I first saw Caro live at Indian Wells in March, 2010 when she was on her way to becoming world number one that October, then again when she won Indian Wells the next year.

Some career details via WIkipedia: "Wozniacki won 30 WTA Tour singles titles (including six in both 2010 and 2011, the most in a year by a WTA player from 2008–2011)[6] and two doubles titles. A junior major champion, she won the 2006 Wimbledon girls' singles title over Magdal?na Ryb?rikov? and was voted the WTA Newcomer of the Year in 2008. Before her victory at the 2018 Australian Open over Simona Halep, she had reached two major finals at the US Open, falling to Kim Clijsters in 2009 and to Serena Williams in 2014. Wozniacki also won the season-ending WTA Finals in 2017, beating Venus Williams, after previously finishing runner-up to Clijsters at the event in 2010. Other career highlights include winning three Premier Mandatory and three Premier 5 titles, reaching four major semifinals (the 2011 Australian Open and the 2010, 2011 and 2016 US Opens), three major quarterfinals (the 2012 Australian Open and the 2010 and 2017 French Opens), and the quarterfinals at the 2012 London Olympics.

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[jimlosaltos]

Here's a shot from Indian Wells this March. Still making that "frog face" when exerting

It's intersting that WTA who return from maternity are often trimmer and appear fitter than they were at their peak. Kudos to their work ethic.

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(c)jfawcette from BNP Paribas Open Indian Wells, March 2024, first image BNP IW 2010

[jimlosaltos]

This week, Wozniacki earned her first grass-court match-win since 2019 by besting 21st-ranked Elina Svitolina {a match dubbed "The Mommie's Bowl" to the annoyance of some} in a rain-delayed opening round, then followed up with a 1-hour and 24-minute victory over World No.36 Kudermetova.

https://www.wtatennis.com/news/4045579/wozniacki-moves-into-bad-homburg-quarterfinals-meets-navarro-next

[jimlosaltos]

I nearly missed my chance to type that this was at Bad Homburg

Bad Homburg is my favorite name for a tennis tournament. I like to think it is German for "Bad Hombre", but in fact Bad is short for "Bath" or Spa, which reportedly distinguishes this Homburg from many other Homburgs

[jimlosaltos]

Woz got a wild card into Wimbledon. But will need to recover in time from an unspecified knee injury.

She won the first set vs up-and-comer Navarro in Bad Homburg, but took a bad fall before serving the set out and only won one more before retiring.

Fingers crossed it's not bad.