I’m No Spring Chicken Anymore

By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday January 14, 2024

After making her comeback at the 2023 US Open and playing extremely competitive tennis, Caroline Wozniacki is looking to take her comeback to the next level in 2024.

The 2018 Australian Open champion, one of eight mothers contesting this year’s women’s singles draw, took the first step in her comeback on Sunday night in Australia, advancing past Poland’s Magda Linette, 6-2, 2-0 RET to set a second-round clash with Russian qualifier Maria Timofeeva.

Wozniacki, now 33 and a mother of two, says she has much greater insight into her form at this stage of her comeback. She returned to the court last summer and went 4-3 overall, reaching the round of 16 in Flushing Meadows, where she pushed eventual champion Coco Gauff to three sets before bowing out.

Speaking to reporters after her win, the Dane says she still feels like she has nothing to lose.

“I think coming back the first couple of matches that I played, I felt like I knew where my level was at, but until you play a proper, full match in a real tournament, you don’t really 100 percent know,” she said. “Now I feel like I came into this tournament, this year, knowing exactly where I was, where I need to be, and what I need to work on. It’s a little bit different. At the same time I think I have nothing to lose and everything to win.”

I’m No Spring Chicken

The former World No.1 says she his thrilled to be back in Melbourne Park, the home of her greatest memory as a pro, where she defeated Simona Halep for the title in 2018.

She is 37-12 lifetime at the Aussie Open.

“Obviously I’m no spring chicken anymore, so my body, I just need to be careful with it, treat it accordingly,” she said. “I think that’s what I’ve learned in the off-season, to be really diligent with everything that I do.

“I think that’s the main thing. I’ve played for so many years, been able to push my body to the brink almost every day for that whole time. Now just I really gotta be more careful with what I do and how I do things.”