Former Champion Caroline Wozniacki Withdraws From 2025 Australian Open
News
Caroline Wozniacki, the 2018 Australian Open winner, will not compete in this year's tournament in Melbourne. The former WTA world No. 1 has withdrawn from the season's opening Grand Slam.
Wozniacki initially retired from professional tennis after the 2020 Australian Open. The highlight of the exceptional first stage of her career was the 2018 Australian Open triumph, but she had many other notable achievements.
The Dane reached two US Open finals and became the world No. 1 in 2010. She was also the 2017 WTA Finals champion, a six-time WTA 1000 winner, and claimed 30 titles until her first retirement.
Wozniacki started a family after retiring and seemed content being away from tennis. Few expected her to ever return to the sport she enjoyed so much success in from her teenage years until retiring nearly five years ago at the Australian Open.
However, in June 2023, Wozniacki announced her return to professional tennis in an essay for Vogue. She received wild cards for that year's Canadian Open, Cincinnati Open, and US Open.
Considering how long she was out for, Wozniacki's run at the 2023 US Open was highly impressive. The two-time runner-up at Flushing Meadows defeated two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and former Australian Open runner-up Jennifer Brady to reach the fourth round.
Wozniacki also pushed the eventual champion Coco Gauff. She was one set away from the quarterfinal, but the American, who was recently told no one can compare to Serena Williams, played a superb deciding set to triumph 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.
The highlights of Wozniacki's 2024 season were once again reaching the fourth round of the US Open and progressing to the quarterfinals of the Indian Wells Open. She lost in three sets in the fourth round in New York for the second successive year, this time to Beatriz Haddad Maia.
Wozniacki's run in Indian Wells ended sadly when she retired at the start of the second set against Iga Swiatek, who was recently involved in a controversial match against Katie Boulter at the United Cup.
The Dane has not competed since last year's US Open, so her skipping the Asian swing after the year's final Grand Slam was unsurprising. Wozniacki has spoken about the challenges of juggling her tennis career and motherhood.
However, Wozniacki not playing in any warmup tournaments before the Australian Open was more surprising. Many expected that a significant part of Wozniacki's decision to return to professional tennis was to play at the Grand Slams in the best shape possible.
It has now been revealed that Wozniacki withdrew from the Australian Open. No official reason was given for that decision, but it raises questions about the former Grand Slam champion's future in the sport.
Peter Bastiansen, an analyst on Danish channel TV2, correctly predicted that Wozniacki would not play at the Australian Open on December 23rd during a brutal summary where he said her comeback to tennis was starting to become a parody.
"I think it's becoming a bit of a parody. I assume that she has stopped her career, but has not announced it yet. I have a hard time seeing her play the Australian Open. We are talking about four months where she has not played a tennis match. It all seems very mysterious."
