“I haven’t been out here since 2019. A lot has happened since then. It just feels amazing to get another chance out here on this big court, playing a night session and to get a win under my belt. It feels so special to play in front of you all.”
“The women have showed that you can still play at a very, very high level,” said Wozniacki beforehand, as one of 10 mothers in the US Open main draw this year, while the now-retired Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters also returned to the WTA Tour in recent years after giving birth. It is nothing new, therefore, but no less inspiring. Wozniacki had said she did not miss tennis when initially retiring and couldn’t have located her rackets in the months that followed. Having already enrolled at Harvard – a September 2019 start which overlapped her retirement announcement in early 2020 – she then took a gap year with husband David, visiting Australia and New Zealand before hiking Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.