After nearly fifteen years as a tennis professional, the brilliant career of Caroline Wozniacki has come to an end.

The 29-year-old Dane bows out of the sport having won 30 WTA singles titles, among them her only Grand Slam title at the 2018 Australian Open and the prestigious WTA Finals in 2017, and holding the world number one ranking for a grand total of 71 weeks.

The start of a promising career came in 2006 when she finished runner-up to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the juniors’ event of the Australian Open, though she would later win the juniors’ title at Wimbledon which, as a senior, would be the only Major that she failed to reach the quarter-finals.

She made the step up to the seniors the following year, making her Grand Slam debut at the 2007 French Open, but would end up on the wrong end of the tournament’s longest losing chain after Justine Henin beat Ana Ivanovic in the championship match.

Nonetheless, she continued her climb up the rankings and proceeded to reach the fourth round on her Australian Open debut, in 2008, falling to the eventual runner-up Ana Ivanovic.

At the French Open, where Wozniacki was seeded at a Major for the first time (30th), she’d also fall foul of Ivanovic, losing to the Serb in straight sets again, this time in the third round.

Later on, she would be beaten by the other Serbian force that year, Jelena Jankovic, at Wimbledon and the US Open (she would defeat a future world number one, Victoria Azarenka, at the latter tournament); in between, shortly after turning 18, she would win her first career title in Stockholm.

The next major step in Wozniacki’s career came at Flushing Meadows twelve months later, where she broke the fourth round barrier for the first time by outlasting reigning French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in three sets.

She eventually proceeded to reach her first Major final, where she was beaten by Kim Clijsters, who was making a comeback on the WTA Tour after becoming a mother the previous year.

Later that year, she caused an unintentional controversy when she retired from a match in Luxembourg due to a hamstring injury, despite being only one game away from winning.

She was leading Anne Kremer 7-5, 5-0 when she was advised by her father, who also acted as her coach, to pull the pin so as to not risk her health ahead of what would be her debut at the season-ending WTA Finals.

There, she reached the semi-finals, retiring against Serena Williams, again due to injury.

The year 2010 saw Wozniacki win six titles, including her first WTA Premier Mandatory title in Beijing towards the end of the year. It was at that tournament where she replaced Serena Williams as the world number one, after the American suffered a nasty foot injury after Wimbledon.

Before her ascent to the top of the rankings, though, the Dane was unable to reach a second US Open final, losing in the semi-final to Vera Zvonareva after defeating Maria Sharapova in the fourth round.

Then, at the season-ending WTA Finals, Wozniacki lost to Kim Clijsters in the championship match in three sets; nonetheless, she became the first Danish man or woman to top the world tennis rankings.

Wozniacki would hold the top ranking for all but one week in 2011 (Clijsters was top in the other week), a year in which she again won six titles, including the prestigious Indian Wells tournament, and again reached the final four at the US Open.

She could have also reached her second Major final much earlier in the year at the Australian Open, but lost in the semi-final to Li Na after holding a match point on serve in the second set.

In New York, her status as a Grand Slam novice was exposed when she lost to 28th seed Serena Williams in the last four, though to be fair, the American was on the comeback trail from the aforementioned foot injury which sidelined her for nearly twelve months between July 2010 and June 2011.

In between, she lost early at the French Open and Wimbledon, losing to Daniela Hantuchova and Dominika Cibulkova in the third and fourth rounds respectively.

The year 2012 saw her start to slowly regress from the upper echelons of women’s tennis; first, she lost the world number one ranking to Victoria Azarenka after losing to Kim Clijsters in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.

She later failed to defend titles in Dubai and Indian Wells, losing to Julia Goerges and Ana Ivanovic, respectively (though Wozniacki did defeat the Serb in the quarter-finals at the former event), and was not allowed to enter Charleston because two top-six players had already entered the draw.

At the other Majors, she failed to advance past the first week, bombing out in her first matches at Wimbledon and the US Open to Tamira Paszek and Irina-Camelia Begu, respectively. Those results would conspire against her as she then dropped out of the world’s top ten.

However, she would finish the year positively, winning titles in Seoul and Moscow and then reaching the final of the lower-tier WTA Tournament of Champions where she was beaten by Nadia Petrova, to finish 10th in the rankings.

The regression that began in 2012 continued into 2013, whereby she failed to reach the quarter-finals at any of the four Majors and very nearly failed to win a title before she salvaged her season with a win in Luxembourg, her final tournament of the year.

She did, however, reach a second final at Indian Wells, benefiting from the pre-quarter-final withdrawal of defending champion Victoria Azarenka before falling to Maria Sharapova in the championship match.

2014 started disappointingly for Wozniacki as she lost to a then-unknown Garbine Muguruza (the same player to whom she lost in Miami the previous year) in the third round of the Australian Open, and then bombed out in her first match at the French Open.

However, she would reach the fourth round at Wimbledon for the first time since 2011, and later reached her second US Open final after her opponent in the semi-final, Peng Shuai, retired due to heat stress.

Though she lost to Serena Williams, the Dane’s run to the final was enough for her to return to the world’s top ten for the first time since February. She then reached her third final for the year in Tokyo, but would be beaten by Ana Ivanovic in straight sets.

Wozniacki’s season of resurgence saw her qualify for the WTA Finals for the first time since 2011, where she lost to Williams in the semi-final despite having served for the match in the final set and leading 4-1 in the subsequent tiebreak.

The year 2015 proved to be a disappointing one for the Dane as she lost early in three of the four Majors; at the Australian Open, in particular, she copped two-time champion Victoria Azarenka in the second round and was beaten quite easily in straight sets.

At the only Major in which she did well for the year, she lost to eventual finalist Garbine Muguruza in the fourth round, though the result proved to be enough for her to climb back up to fourth in the world.

An ankle injury suffered during the US Open swing caused her to lose early at most tournaments, including at the year’s final Major where she fell to Petra Cetkovska despite holding four match points. Her poor form at the Majors caused her to finish the year ranked 17th.

As disappointing was 2015 was, Wozniacki fared even worse in 2016, losing in the first round of the Australian Open and then suffering an ankle injury which forced her to miss the French Open, marking her first absence from a Major since her debut in 2007.

She returned for Wimbledon, but drew two-time Major champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the first round and lost. Her early exit from the All England Club would result in her dropping out of the world’s top 50 for the first time since 2008.

The Dane would also lose early at the Rio Olympic Games, losing to eventual Bronze Medallist Petra Kvitova. By the time she arrived at Flushing Meadows for the final Major of 2016, her ranking would sit at a lowly 74th.

However, she would prove to the tennis world that she was not yet a spent force, reaching the semi-finals for the fifth time before losing to eventual champion and soon-to-be world number one Angelique Kerber. Her deep run would push her back into the world’s top 30.

Her resurgence continue when she defeated local player Naomi Osaka (who at this point was still mostly unknown to the tennis world) to win her second title in Tokyo, ending a title drought of eighteen months.

Shortly after, she would win her 25th career title in Hong Kong, marking the first time in four years that she’d won multiple titles in a season. After being ranked as low as 74th during the year, the then-26-year-old would end the year back inside the world’s top 20.

Wozniacki began 2017 by reaching the quarter-finals at the ASB Classic in Auckland, where she was defeated by Julia Goerges in three sets. Then, at the Australian Open, she lost early yet again, this time falling to Johanna Konta in straight sets the third round.

After that, she would reach three finals, in Doha, Dubai and Miami, losing to Karolina Pliskova, Elina Svitolina and Konta respectively. Despite these disappointments, she would end the first quarter of the year back in the world’s top fifteen.

She proceeded to reach the last eight at Roland Garros for the first time in seven years, defeating 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in three sets before falling to eventual champion Jelena Ostapenko. She also reached the fourth round at Wimbledon, losing to Coco Vandeweghe.

At the US Open, Wozniacki fell to Ekaterina Makarova in the second round, putting an end to yet another disappointing year at the Majors. However, she would end the year strongly, successfully defending her title in Tokyo before winning the biggest title of her career to that point at the WTA Finals in Singapore by defeating Venus Williams in the final.

Her year-end ranking of number three was her highest for six years, and despite having not yet won a Major title, she entered the 2018 Australian Open as one of the title favourites.

Seeded second, the Dane reached her third Major final but not before hitting turbulence in the second round where, against Jana Fett, she trailed 5-1 in the final set and faced two match points, which could have seen her depart Melbourne Park early yet again.

In the championship match, she faced world number one Simona Halep, and the stakes were high for both players who had been ranked world number one at some point in their careers, but had not yet won a title at Grand Slam level.

After two hours and 49 minutes, Wozniacki emerged victorious in three gut-wrenching sets, breaking new ground in the process by becoming the first Danish player to win a Grand Slam singles title.

Additionally, she also regained the world number one ranking exactly six years after last holding it, this coming after the injury troubles she endured in 2016 caused her to drop to 74th in the world.

Her win at the Australian Open also put to rest the years of criticism and ridicule she copped for having not yet won a Grand Slam title despite having been ranked world number one.

Later, she became only the fourth woman in WTA history (after the Williams sisters, and Maria Sharapova) to earn $30M in prize money. She would win a further two titles in 2018 – in Eastbourne and Beijing – defeating Aryna Sabalenka and Anastasija Sevastova respectively in the championship match.

At the Majors, she would reach the fourth round at the French Open, but would lose in the second round at both Wimbledon and the US Open.

Wozniacki would enter 2019 – her final full year on tour – with the biggest test of her career, entering the Australian Open as the defending champion.

Though she won her first two matches in straight sets, she would then run into Sharapova in the third round, capitulating in three sets and marking the end of her Australian Open title defence in the first week.

At the other Majors for the year, she lost in the first round of the French Open, and the third round at Wimbledon and the US Open, the latter to the eventual champion Bianca Andreescu, whom she’d already lost to in Auckland at the start of the year.

She would end up not winning a title in 2019 – marking the first time since 2007 that she failed to win a title in a calendar year – and ended the year outside the seeding range for the Majors but just inside the top 40.

At the end of a year that also saw her tie the knot with basketballer David Lee, the Dane announced that she would retire following her participation at this year’s Australian Open.

In her penultimate tournament, she reached the semi-finals in Auckland, losing to Jessica Pegula, but did manage to reach the final in the doubles where she partnered with her good friend, Serena Williams.

Which is what brings us to her final tournament – the Australian Open – where she was victorious just two years ago.

As was the case last year, she again won her first two matches in straight sets, before bowing out of professional tennis by way of a three-set loss to Ons Jabeur.

As is typical of the fight she has shown on the WTA Tour that won her millions of fans worldwide, Wozniacki did not go down without a fight, coming from 0-3 down in the final set to get it back on serve before surrendering it 7-5 in the fifth.

It marked the seventh time in her last eight appearances at the Australian Open in which she fell before the quarter-final stage, and the eighth consecutive Major in which she failed to reach the quarter-finals, a streak that started at the 2018 French Open.

After the match, a special presentation was held for her, in which present players such as Serena Williams and Ashleigh Barty gave their thoughts on what it was like to play against the newly-retired Dane.

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Watch @CaroWozniacki watch @serenawilliams, @KaPliskova, @ashbarty, @naomiosaka, @Simona_Halep, @SloaneStephens, @Madison_Keys & more share their memories of the great Dane. #AO2020 | #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/YVPQQo6M8m

— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 24, 2020

As for what is ahead for the 29-year-old, she plans to work on the autoimmune disease which causes pain and inflammation in joints when a player retires, and “achieve other things in life”.

Having recently married former NBA basketballer David Lee, perhaps starting a family is one of them.

But for now, let the dust continue to settle on what has been one of the most illustrious and celebrated careers in modern tennis history.

Thanks for the memories, Caroline.