There is no shortage of mothers populating the WTA rankings in season 2024 – especially after a succession of high-profile comebacks igniting even more interest in the Australian summer of tennis.
But few of those mothers are returning to the sport having had two children.
Caroline Wozniacki is doing just that, however, and finds herself in a vastly different place in her life compared to the last time she contested the Australian Open.
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That was in 2020, when she played her farewell tournament and retired at age 29. Now, she reappears as a 33-year-old mother to daughter Olivia and son James, who have travelled with her to Melbourne.
She confronts a vastly different tennis landscape, too, as she prepares for her 14th Australian Open campaign.
“It's great to still have our generation here,” she told the media on Friday after a practice session with fellow mum Angelique Kerber.
“There's a lot of young players. Some players were probably born the year I turned pro. I don't know. We're probably not far off.
“I definitely feel young on the inside, but I realise I'm no longer in my 20s.
“In tennis, I'm in the older generation.”
In those four years between her 2020 and 2024 AO appearances, the women’s top 10 is entirely different. The top four players – Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina and Coco Gauff – are considerably younger than the Dane, and since Wozniacki won her first and only Grand Slam title at Australian Open 2018, that quartet have all become major champions themselves.
Wozniacki has been diligently preparing for the Australian summer since her 2023 comeback, a three-tournament swing through North America in August that culminated at the US Open.
It was Gauff who stopped her in the fourth round in New York, en route to her first major title.
Wozniacki, who extended the American teenager to three sets, felt it was the physical side of her game, not the tennis itself, that was the missing piece of the jigsaw as she looked to re-establish herself at the very top of the sport.
And after putting in that work, she feels ready to contend.
“I think anytime I step on a court, I believe I can win the match no matter who the opponent is across the net,” said Wozniacki, who opens her AO 2024 campaign against last year’s semifinalist Magda Linette.
“My body feels pretty good… I do believe that I'm playing very well.
“[When] I got into doing a bit of commentating [during retirement]... I got to watch basically all the players, players that I hadn't met or seen before. I was following a lot.
“I think it's hard to compare the old top 10 with the new top 10... I mean, you can't really compare someone to Serena, in my opinion.
“That being said, I think we have very strong players, players that are performing at a very high level. I think we're pushing tennis in the right direction. I think there's a lot more players that are playing on a very high level. That's been a continuous thing for quite a while now.”
Whatever transpires at Australian Open 2024, one thing helping Wozniacki is the uplifting presence of her children.
Olivia, her eldest, is starting to understand what she does, and she accompanies her mother to a place that brings back incredible memories.
While Wozniacki understands Olivia will eventually reach an age where her tennis-playing parent will no longer be “cool”, it hasn’t arrived yet.
And what would be cooler than a stunning Grand Slam triumph in just the fourth event of her celebrated comeback?
“Melbourne will always have a special place in my heart,” Wozniacki said.
“I always really enjoyed playing here. Coming back here, obviously winning the tournament, it's something that I don't take for granted.
“It's really great to have the opportunity to play again.”