She has taken a three-year break and given birth twice since then, but Caroline Wozniacki believes the best tennis of her career is yet to come.

Despite retiring in 2020, Wozniacki has announced a surprise comeback, saying she is “hitting as well as ever”.

In addition to the Australian Open title in 2018, the Dane won 30 titles on the WTA Tour. She spent 71 weeks as world number one during that time.

“This is the right thing to do for me and my family, and I am very excited about it,” the 33-year-old said.

Whenever you feel that you can still play at your best and have something left in you, it’s a great opportunity for you.”

“Why not? You only live once.”

Last month, Wozniacki announced her comeback and was playing in an invitational doubles event at Wimbledon. She celebrated her birthday on Tuesday.

The Canadian will compete in Montreal in early August, as well as be given a wildcard to the US Open at the end of August.

“I am not putting a time limit on it,” the Dane said.

I’m excited to come back and to be playing, hopefully my best tennis yet, but I’ll see how my body holds up, how I feel, and how everyone does.”

Announcing the birth of son James in October 2022 and daughter Olivia in June 2021, Wozniacki will become one of a number of mothers on tour.

“I talked about it after James was born,” Wozniacki said. My pregnancies motivated me to exercise a lot and I wanted to get back into good shape.

“I started hitting a couple of times a week just to see how my body felt and suddenly found myself hitting better than ever.

“Having the kids travel around the world, meet new people, and learn about different cultures will be wonderful experiences for our family.”

Elina Svitolina reached the Wimbledon semi-finals on Tuesday after giving birth last year. Angelique Kerber is set to make her comeback after giving birth earlier this year, as has Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka.

Her daughter was born 18 months after Kim Clijsters won the US Open, beating Wozniacki in the finals.