Caroline Wozniacki hasn’t lost her winning skill

The main event of the opening round of the Omnium Banque Nationale presente par Rogers, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) 1000 category competition taking place in Montreal with a prize fund of $2.7 million, was the return of the former world number one 33-year-old Danish Caroline Wozniacki. After a break of three and a half years due to the birth of two children, she left no chance for the Australian Kimberly Birrell, who occupies 115th place in the world classification.

Having announced at the end of June her intention to resume her career, interrupted at the beginning of 2020, Caroline Wozniacki called her main goal a successful performance at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. And only then she clarified that, in fact, we are primarily talking about a mixed category. It is clear that it will not be easy for a 33-year-old mother of two to count on a medal alone, but in mixed doubles, the chances are higher, since Holger Rune recently appeared in Denmark, a young tennis player who, apparently, has staked out a place in the world elite for a long time.

However, the first match held by Wozniacki in Montreal showed that she was quite competitive in singles as well.

At the start, the Dane met with the Australian Kimberly Birrell, who occupies 115th place in the world classification. This 25-year-old tennis player has never been in the top 100 yet, but she passed the qualifications of the Canadian “masters” very confidently, beating two more famous rivals – compatriot Daria Saville and Yulia Putintseva from Kazakhstan, who at one time were born in Moscow and played for Russia.

Nevertheless, Caroline Wozniacki beat Birrell quite easily, in about an hour and a half, giving up two games in each of the parties. Acting in her trademark manner from defense with a sharp transition to a counterattack, she made more than two times fewer unforced errors.

“To be honest, I didn’t know what to count on today,” Wozniacki said after the victory, the absence of which at WTA tournaments lasted 1293 days. “But I am completely delighted that after so much time I was able to play a match at such a tournament and win it “. It is obvious that the organizers of Omnium Banque Nationale presente par Rogers made the right decision by giving the Dane a wild card. Indeed, in the second round, the meeting with the participation of Caroline Wozniacki will attract even more interest, since her opponent will be the recent Wimbledon champion, the 10th racket of the world, the Czech Marketa Vondrousova, who outplayed the Egyptian Mayar Sheriff.

“Marketa played incredible tennis at Wimbledon, got out of some very tough situations there, but managed to save nervous energy for the final,” Wozniacki said. “Besides, she is left-handed, but I have nothing to lose. I’m going to get on the court and have fun no matter how things turn out.”

Three Russians also reached the 1/16 finals of the Montreal tournament. Daria Kasatkina and Anna Blinkova will now find out the relationship between themselves, and Lyudmila Samsonova, who outplayed the leader of the WTA doubles rating Czech Katerina Sinyakova in three games, will meet with Chinese Zheng Qingwen.

Evgeny Fedyakov