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Caroline Wozniacki is back in Melbourne, with two kids and a belief she can still challenge for the Australian Open title.
- Wozniacki has not played the Australian Open since 2020, when she stepped away from tennis
- Former champions Naomi Osaka and Angelique Kerber also missed last year's Australian Open while having kids
- Osaka said it has been "really hard" travelling to Australia without baby Shai, born in July
The 2018 champion has returned to Melbourne Park for the first time since coming out of retirement last year.
Wozniacki stepped away from tennis in early 2020, gave birth to daughter Olivia in February 2021 and son James in 2022, before returning to competition in August last year and reaching the fourth round of the US Open in September.
She is one of three former Australian Open champions, alongside Angelique Kerber ('16) and Naomi Osaka ('19 and '21), returning to the fray after giving birth, while 19th seed Elina Svitolina has also returned for the first time since giving birth in October 2022.
Wildcard Wozniacki is up against 20th seed Magda Linette in the first round.
"Anytime I step on a court I believe I can win the match, no matter who the opponent is across the net," the 33-year-old Dane said on Friday.
"I think I'm playing well. My body feels pretty good. Again, it's a long way to go.
"I'm just going to focus on my first-round opponent and kind of go from there. That's always been my mindset."
Woznacki travels with Olivia and James everywhere and believes that allows her to strike the ideal balance.
"It's a lot of fun to be able to share these memories with them, even though they're still pretty small," she said.
"It's hard. It feels like you have two full-time jobs, basically.
"Finding that balance and being able to do both, I know there's thousands and thousands of women out there that have full-time jobs and are also mums, but it's hard.
"Sometimes I pat myself on the back, 'you're doing good, we're OK'.
"Some days it's survival; some days we're thriving. We're getting through one day at a time and the kids are happy."
Osaka has travelled to Melbourne without daughter Shai, born in July last year.
"It's definitely been really hard," two-time champion Osaka said.
"She's learning things while I'm gone. I'm hoping she doesn't learn how to crawl before I come back … I think it might be a little inevitable.
"I'm definitely sad, but I feel like it's a selfish sad because I want her to be here.
"But I think for her health and like her whole environment is at home; I don't want to put her out of that while she's still so young."
Fresh off two matches at the Brisbane International, which was her first tournament since September 2022, Osaka starts her campaign against 16th seed Caroline Garcia, while Kerber will play 2022 finalist Danielle Collins first-up.
Close friends Wozniacki and Kerber hit together on Friday and the German is cautious on her expectations in her first slam since giving birth to daughter Liana last February.
"It is great to see mums coming back. I'm one of them. Especially now I think it's also really interesting for the fans, for the people outside, to see us playing again, how the comebacks will go," Kerber said.
"Also for us, it is completely different mindset because, of course, we are not really the important person right now in our lives, there is someone else."
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AAP