Caroline Wozniacki has explained her recovery routine after matches as she progressed at the Australian Open.
The former champion produced an aggressive performance as she won eight of the first ten games before Magda Linette retired from their opening round match.
It was a dominant opening set from Wozniacki before Linette felt her hip/leg injury and was ultimately forced to withdraw.
After the match Wozniacki felt she was aggressive but admitted it’s not the way she wanted to win, “I think all in all I played pretty consistent. I tried to stay aggressive, tried to get close to the lines, move the ball around. I feel like I did that pretty well,” Wozniacki said in her press conference.
“We had some good, long rallies to start off. Yeah, it’s definitely not the way you want to win. You want to see your opponent be healthy. But I saw she tweaked her leg at one point there late in the first set. I wasn’t sure what was happening. Then I just tried to keep my head cool. Was expecting her to finish, but it obviously was bad enough where she felt like she couldn’t.”
Speaking of injuries and being precautious, Wozniacki was asked about how she does her best to recover and prepare for the next match.
The Dane detailed her recovery process and admitted she’s no spring chicken anymore as she looks for more Grand Slam success after her recent hiatus from the sport, “I think about where I thought it was going to be. But obviously I’m no spring chicken anymore, so my body, I just need to be careful with it, treat it accordingly,” Wozniacki responded when asked about how easy her recovery has gone since her comeback.
“I think that’s what I’ve learned in the off-season, to be really diligent with everything that I do. I think that’s the main thing. I’ve played for so many years, been able to push my body to the brink almost every day for that whole time. Now just I really got to be more careful with what I do and how I do things.
“I no longer can be just like, Okay, one minute I’m a little, that’s fine, we’ll just start playing. I really got to do my due diligence with the warm-ups and cool-downs.
“Actually, when I was really young, I had a coach who made me show up 15 minutes early every time, had to do these special stretches, had to warm up. That was the routine every single time. Kind of as I got a little older, probably in my 20s, is like, Oh, yeah, I’ll warm up. Of course I don’t want to get hurt.
“Sometimes it would be a little less, a little more. Now I really need to go back to how I did when I was young, really be there early. I’m usually early, but just really do the warm-ups properly again and cool-downs especially.”
Some really interesting insight into Wozniacki’s preparation as she prepares for her second round clash.
The 33 year-old will now face 20 year-old Maria Timofeeva in the next round on Wednesday.