In case you're looking for the best story of the US Open, Caroline Wozniacki retired for three years, had two kids, came back and beat the tournament's No. 11 seed.
The former world No. 1 defeated Petra Kvitova 7-5, 7-6 (4) at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Wednesday, advancing to the third round in her first Grand Slam since the 2020 Australian Open. Now 33 years old, she will face American Jennifer Brady in her next match.
It was a close match between Wozniacki and Kvitova, who were once ranked the No. 1 and 2 players in the world. Wozniacki has always been known as a defensive specialist and that reputation bore out early in the match, with the players exchanging breaks throughout the first set.
There were times when it was hard to distinguish between 2011 and 2023 Wozniacki.
Wozniacki began to impress more with her serve in the second set, and finished the match with five aces and wins in 39 of her 53 first serve points. She was a break away from winning the match twice, but Kvitova held serve both times to force the tiebreaker.
Wozniacki opted to retire at the 2020 Australian Open, the tournament where she won her only Grand Slam title in 2018. Not only had her form declined over the years due to injuries, she was also fighting excruciating pain from rheumatoid arthritis.
Over the course of the next three years, Wozniacki had a daughter and son with her husband, former NBA player David Lee. She later said she didn't hit a tennis ball until after having both children, a layoff of more than two years. But then she got back on the court and realized she was having a lot more fun.
On June 29 this year, she announced in a Vogue article she was returning to tennis with the goal of playing at the US Open:
"So I'm going to play the US Open. 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."
All of that has so far come to pass. Wozniacki won her return match at the Canadian Open and lost in the second round, then played one more tune-up at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati. And with Wednesday's win, she confirmed her comeback is indeed real.