Caroline Wozniacki’s sunny smile has never masked her deep determination, and the Dane has needed all of her grit to turn around the toughest season of her career.
She’ll be hoping that a 6-4, 6-4 upset of 2004 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the second round of the US Open on Wednesday is a turning point in a 2016 campaign marred by injury and a precipitous drop in ranking.
Wozniacki, a former world number one, was two breaks down at 0-4 in the first set but won 12 of the next 16 games to advance.
“At one point, I was thinking we’ve being playing for 30 minutes. Right now, it’s 4-0 for her, this is not looking good for me. I just kept fighting for every point.”
The match could be a metaphor for her a 2016 season in which she missed three months nursing a right ankle injury.
Until arriving at Flushing Meadows she’d endured nothing but disappointment in the year’s Grand Slams, falling in the first round in Australia and at Wimbledon and missing Roland Garros.
In characteristically optimistic fashion, Wozniacki said her enforced time off had an upside.
“When you’re home for a big amount of time you realise that life goes on and you kind of get a rhythm at home,” she said. “I was actually enjoying my time, making the most of the time that I had.
“I haven’t been able to be home for three months in a row for the last probably over 10 years. So, you know, if I have to look at the positive of things, that was a positive.”
Wozniacki sparked speculation she might be considering her non-tennis options with a “Letter to My Younger Self” on The Players’ Tribune website last week.
“Tennis won’t last for ever, Caroline,” she counselled her 11-year-old self. “Plan for your future. Think about what you’d like to do next and take steps to set yourself up for a successful life after you play your last pro match.”
But Wozniacki said Wednesday that she didn’t feel that her tennis life was coming to an end.
“I always had in my head that I just have to keep working hard and I’ll come back and hopefully play strong and play well,” she said.