Caroline Wozniacki was born on July 11, 1990, in Odense, Denmark, to Anna and Piotr Wozniacki. Both her parents were very accomplished athletes, with Anna playing on the Polish women’s national volleyball team while Piotr played professional football.
Her older brother Patrick also played professional football in Denmark. Wozniacki had a strong junior career. She was the runner-up at the 2006 Australian Open Juniors event to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. This was followed by winning the Wimbledon Juniors title in the same year. Wozniacki peaked at No. 2 in the rankings during her junior career.
The Dane entered the WTA Tour in 2006 and worked herself into the Top 100 by the end of 2007. Wozniacki then had a bigger breakthrough in 2008. She won her first three WTA tournaments and ended the season ranked just outside the Top 10. A 19-year-old Wozniacki became known worldwide at the 2009 US Open.
She only dropped one set on her way to the final at Flushing Meadows, which was in the fourth round against Svetlana Kuznetsova in a tight battle. Kim Clijsters was too strong in the final, but the Dane finished the season ranked No. 4 in the world.
Wozniacki reached three more Grand Slam semifinals in 2010 and 2011. Two of these were at the US Open, where she lost to Vera Zvonareva and Serena Williams, respectively. The other was a defeat to Li Na at the 2011 Australian Open.
However, Wozniacki had incredible success at WTA 1000 events in those two seasons. She claimed her first title at that level at the Canadian Open, triumphing over Zvonareva in the final. Four more WTA 1000 titles followed in 2010 and 2011 in Tokyo, Beijing, Dubai, and Indian Wells.
She was also the runner-up at the 2010 WTA Finals. Her extremely impressive results in 2010 and 2011 saw Wozniacki end both seasons as the world No. 1. The following years brought consistent results, but Wozniacki did not have the same level of success as in 2010 and 2011.
The one big exception was another run to the US Open final in 2014, which included a victory against Maria Sharapova. She was beaten in the final by Serena Williams. Glory finally came in 2017 and 2018 for the Dane. Wozniacki won a maiden WTA Finals title by beating Venus Williams 6-4 6-4 in the final.
She also claimed her first WTA 1000 title in seven years at the 2018 China Open. However, the 2018 Australian Open was the biggest moment of Wozniacki’s career. Victories against Mihaela Buzarnescu, Jana Fett, Kiki Bertens, and Magdalena Rybarikova took her into the quarterfinal.
She then won a three-set battle with Carla Suarez Navarro to make the semifinal. Wozniacki reached her third Grand Slam final by defeating Elise Mertens in straight sets. She was not denied this time and won her maiden Grand Slam by triumphing 7-6 3-6 6-4 against Simona Halep. It also took her back to No. 1 in the rankings.
The Dane elected to retire after the 2020 Australian Open with an incredible 30 career titles to her name. But she then shocked the tennis world by returning to the sport in 2023. Wozniacki made her comeback with a run to the fourth round of the US Open, where she lost in three sets to eventual champion Coco Gauff.
