Caroline Wozniacki’s comeback begins with an impressive victory over Kimberly Birrell in Montreal

Three and a half years after her last WTA match, Caroline Wozniacki has returned to the winner’s circle on the WTA Tour. The Danish wild card, playing her first match since retiring from the sport in 2020, beat Australian qualifier Kimberly Birrell 6-2, 6-2 on Tuesday to advance to the second round Omnium Banque Nationale in Montreal.

“It feels great,” the mother of two told the crowd. “My first match back in over three years, I was definitely a little rusty, but what an amazing place to to comeback – I always loved playing in Montreal.”

33-year-old Wozniacki, the 2010 champion in Montreal who is making her 12th appearance at the event, will face the winner of the match between No 9 seed Marketa Vondrousova and Egyptian Mayar Sherif next.

Former world No 1 Wozniacki was exceptional from the backhand side against Birrell and dominated the match for the most part. She hit 13 winners against 15 unforced errors and converted six of her 12 break points to advance in one hour and 37 minutes against the 114-ranked qualifier.

She won the final four games of the match to lock up her 177th career 100-level victory.

177 – Caroline Wozniacki has equalled Petra Kvitova at the 3rd place for the most WTA-1000 main draw wins (177) since the introduction of the format in 2009 – only Victoria Azarenka (187) and Simona Halep (186) have now more. Sweet.#OBN23 | @OBNmontreal @WTA_insider @WTA pic.twitter.com/8JPu7clmzg

— OptaAce (@OptaAce) August 8, 2023

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Montreal WTA 1000, other first-round matches (Stade IGA, hard, USD 2,788,468):

• Daria Kasatkina (10) beat Elise Mertens: 6-4, 6-2
• Liudmila Samsonova (15) beat Katerina Siniakova: 4-6, 6-2, 6-3
• Danielle Collins (Q) beat Elina Svitolina: 6-2, 6-2
• Alycia Parks (Q) beat Lauren Davis: 7-5, 4-6, 6-2
• Katie Boulter (Q) beat Rebecca Marino (WC): 6-3, 6-1
• Sloane Stephens beat Anhelina Kalinina: 6-4, 7-6 (2)
• Jennifer Brady beat Jelena Ostapenko: 7-6 (7), 0-6, 7-6 (8)
• Madison Keys (13) beat Venus Williams (WC): 6-2, 7-5
• Belinda Bencic (12) beat Lucia Bronzetti: 6-2, 6-3
• Sorana Cirstea beat Varvara Gracheva: 6-4, 7-6 (3)
• Victoria Azarenka (16) beat Magda Linette: 6-3, 6-0
• Marie Bouzkova beat Kayla Day (Q): 7-6 (1), 6-3
• Jasmine Paolini beat Donna Vekic: 7-6 (3), 6-2
• Karolina Pliskova beat Lin Zhu: 6-3, 6-7 (8), 6-2
• Camila Giorgi vs. Bianca Andreescu
• Marketa Vondrousova vs. Mayar Sherif
• Petra Martic vs. Lesia Tsurenko
• Marta Kostyuk vs. Qinwen Zheng
• Anna Blinkova vs. Shuai Zhang
• Leylah Fernandez vs. Peyton Stearns
• Beatriz Haddad Maia vs. Magdalena Frech
• Bernarda Pera vs. Yulia Putintseva
• Anastasia Potapova vs. Karolina Muchova