I’m a tennis star who was engaged to Rory McIlroy and haven’t played for THREE years – now I’m making comeback
RORY MCILROY’S former fiancee is making a shock big time tennis comeback after a THREE YEAR absence to have two babies.
Caroline Wozniacki retired in 2020 but the 33-year-old, who lifted the Australian Open in 2018, revealed in June that she was about to return to the court.
She then accepted wildcards for two warm-up events in Montreal and Cincinnati prior to the US Open in New York.
She played her first match at the Canadian Open, and tasted a first round victory, before losing to Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova.
Wozniacki went on to play in Cincinnati in the build-up to the US Open, where she has twice been a finalist, and in which she has a wildcard entry to this year.
But despite losing in the first round in Cincinnati, fans are still delighted to see her back.
Wozniacki welcomed two children into the world with her former NBA star husband David Lee during her three years away from sport.
She was only 29 when she hung up her racket after losing to Ons Jabeur at the Australian Open in the third round.
The Dane was, and still remains, one of the biggest names in tennis and now could add to an already iconic career by claiming comeback glory.
She burst onto the scene as a teenager and made it into the top 20 players aged 18 and reached No1, where she stayed for a remarkable 71 weeks, by 20.
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She lost the 2009 US Open final and two years later her romance with golfer McIlroy started to blossom as he won his first major.
The couple announced their engagement on January 1 2014 – but it ended in May that year with the tennis ace later revealing the Northern Irishman broke it off via a phone call.
Despite that, Wozniacki reached the US Open for a second time, only to be beaten by Serena Williams.
She found love again several years later when she met basketballer Lee, and after announcing they were engaged in 2017, they tied the knot in 2019 with Williams being one of Wozniacki’s bridesmaids.
But Wozniacki announced she was struggling physically with rheumatoid arthritis and would later admit that contributed to her decision to retire, telling Vogue: “One day I woke up and couldn’t get out of bed.
“I was in so much pain that I couldn’t even brush my hair or brush my teeth.”
She then revealed that she did not hit a ball for two years, saying: “I didn’t hit a tennis ball until after James was born, more than two years after my last match.
“It’s hard to say why, or what changed, but when my dad saw me practice that day, and said, ‘It looks like you’re enjoying it more’—that was exactly how I felt: I was relaxed and having fun, and somehow that let me see everything more clearly.”
Now she is back for the US Open and appears to want a few more years at the top before quitting for good.
Wozniacki added: “How long will I be able to play at my highest level—a year, two years, three years? I don’t know.
“But I know that five years from now, when the kids are in school, it will be too late.“I’m not going to make any bold predictions—but if I didn’t believe in myself, I wouldn’t be doing this: I’m too competitive to just show up and not feel like I’m going to be one of the best players out there.”