On the road to Paris: Wozniacki earns her Olympic wildcard

Friday, 14 June 2024 at 23:30

Caroline Wozniacki received a wildcard for the Olympic Games and will be at Paris 2024. The former world No. 1 returned from retirement in August 2023 and has since played only 10 tournaments, placing her at No. 123 in the Race to the Olympics, which was not enough for direct qualification.

The 33-year-old Dane retired in January 2020 after competing in the Australian Open to focus on her family. Three and a half years later, with two children, she decided to return to the Tour. Despite maintaining a careful schedule with few tournaments, Wozniacki has had good performances, including quarter-finals at Indian Wells and round of 16 at the recent US Open.

Wozniacki secures a spot in Paris 2024

The former world No. 1 will be participating in the Olympic Games for the fourth time, following her appearances in 2008, 2012, and 2016. Her best performance so far was on the grass courts of the All England Club in London 2012, where Wozniacki was defeated in the quarter-finals by Serena Williams, who went on to win the gold medal a few days later.

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This time, Wozniacki did not qualify directly as in her previous three participations, as she requested a wildcard from the ITF. According to the Olympic Games qualification rules, two wildcards are granted to former Grand Slam champions or former world No. 1s, and Wozniacki confirmed that she received one of them.

A year ago, while playing her second tournament since her comeback at the Cincinnati Open, Wozniacki mentioned in an interview her desire to compete in the Olympic Games and hinted at a potential mixed doubles partnership with her compatriot Holger Rune: “Obviously, the Olympics would be awesome to play and mixed doubles with him would be a big goal. But we'll see how everything shakes up.”

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“Today I officially qualified for my 4th Olympics!!! Paris 2024, see you there!!! Here a little throwback from Rio2016!,” Caroline Wozniacki posted on X (former Twitter).