Their rivalry started in 2008, in Stockholm. Their friendship? Long before that.
More than fifteen years after their first tour-level meeting, fans at the 2024 BNP Paribas Open are thrilled to welcome back Caroline Wozniacki and Angelique Kerber as they take the early steps of post-maternity leave comebacks and contest their sixteenth lifetime meeting on Tuesday in the California desert.
Read on to know five things about this storied rivalry…
GET TICKETSWozniacki was the first to return to the tour as a mom. After giving birth to her daughter Olivia (in June of 2021) and son James (in October of 2022), the Dane returned to the WTA Tour last August. Since then she has played 14 matches on tour, reaching the round of 16 at the US Open and the second round at this year’s Australian Open.
Kerber, who gave birth to her baby girl Liana in February of 2023, returned to the tour in January. The German lost six of her first seven matches, but has found her form in the California desert, reeling off three consecutive wins, including two straight against Top 20 talents (Jelena Ostapenka and Veronika Kudermetova).
The legendary pair have been friends since their early days on tour, and they continue to be close to this day. Wozniacki told reporters this week that Kerber called her regularly when she was pregnant, just to pick her brain about what motherhood was like.
“I think I always root for her, I think I always have, for a very long time,” Wozniacki said last week when asked what she thought of Kerber’s performance in her second-round match. “I always root for my friends.”
She won’t be rooting for her on Tuesday, however.
“I think both of us are going out there thinking it's a 50-50 match,” Wozniacki said, adding: “And whoever grabs the opportunities best is going to win that match. I think that's the mindset of both of us going out there.”
Tuesday’s clash will be the sixteenth all-time meeting between the pair. They met in the semifinals here in 2013, with former champion (2011) Wozniacki coming through, 2-6, 6-4, 7-5. Their first and only meeting at a Grand Slam was in the 2016 US Open semifinals, which Kerber took en route to the title.
Of their 15 previous tilts, seven have gone to three sets, with Wozniacki winning four of those.
Kerber has won three major titles, at the 2016 Australian Open and US Open, and at Wimbledon in 2018. Wozniacki won her lone major title at the 2018 Australian Open.
Wozniacki first rose to No.1 in 2010 and has held the WTA’s top ranking for 71 weeks – good for 11th on the WTA’s all-time list for weeks at No.1. Kerber claimed the top ranking for the first time in 2016, and held it for a total of 34 weeks – good for 15th on the all-time list.
Ranked 607 (playing on a protected ranking of No.31), Kerber is the lowest-ranked player to reach the round of 16 at the BNP Paribas Open since the tournament switched to a 96-player draw in 2004. Wozniacki is ranked 204, and received a wild card into the main draw.
