Maria Sharapova used an article in Vanity Fair to announce she was “saying goodbye” to tennis, on this day in 2020.
Sharapova had struggled with chronic shoulder problems for some time and the five-time grand slam champion and former world number one had dropped to 373rd in the rankings.
The then-32-year-old said it would be a wrench to walk away, writing: “How do you leave behind the only life you’ve ever known?
“How do you walk away from the courts you’ve trained on since you were a little girl, the game that you love – one which brought you untold tears and unspeakable joys – a sport where you found a family, along with fans who rallied behind you for more than 28 years?
“I’m new to this, so please forgive me. Tennis – I’m saying goodbye.”
Having announced her talent by winning Wimbledon at the age of just 17 in 2004, Sharapova went on to establish herself as one of the greats of her era – among her contemporaries, only Serena and Venus Williams won more slam singles titles.
Sharapova added the US Open title in 2006 and the Australian Open in 2008 before twice lifting the trophy at Roland Garros, in 2012 and 2014. She is one of only 10 women to achieve the career Grand Slam.
Her impact on court was trumped by her profile off it, with the Russian the world’s highest-earning female athlete for much of her career.
In 2016 came the bombshell announcement that she had failed a doping test for the cardiac drug meldonium, which had been added to the banned list at the start of that year.
Sharapova was banned for two years, reduced to 15 months on appeal.
She returned to action in April 2017 but was unable to reach her previous heights, peaking at a high of 21 in the rankings and reaching just one more grand slam quarter-final.
In July 2022, Sharapova became a mother with the birth of her son Theodore and has taken up pickleball in her post-retirement life.
Earlier this month, she partnered up with John McEnroe to take on Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf – in Pickleball Slam 2 – losing out on the one million USD (£789,000) prize.
Coco Gauff's emergence as arguably the biggest star of American tennis since Serena Williams is great for the women's game, says former British number one Laura Robson.
Gauff captured the imagination of the American public by winning the US Open last September, the 19-year-old fighting back to beat Aryna Sabalenka in a memorable final at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
That made the teenager the first American – male or female – to win the tournament since Williams, who won the event for the sixth time in 2014. Gauff, Williams and her sister Venus are the only American women to claim the trophy in the 21st century.
Gauff will look to back up that success at the Australian Open when the first major of the year begins on Sunday, and Robson is delighted to see her thriving after being criticised earlier in 2023.
"I love what she's done in the last three months in particular, because over the clay courts and the grass-court season, everyone was writing her off," Robson told Stats Perform.
"She just went back to the drawing board, got a new team around her, played unbelievably at the Cincinnati Masters and came into the US Open with confidence.
"You could tell, with the way that she played the longer matches, she just felt so good about her game. You could see how she was moving out there.
"She is definitely the fastest out on tour at the moment on the women's side. I'm just super pumped for her.
"To be in the stadium and to feel the energy when she won the US Open was crazy.
"I'd say 99.99 per cent of the stadium was going for her and it's going to be a huge boost for women's tennis to have an American superstar like her."
Asked whether Gauff was the natural successor to Williams – who finished her glittering career one major title shy of Margaret Court's record of 24 – Robson said other players' efforts to push American tennis forward should not be overlooked.
"I definitely feel like Jessica Pegula and Madison keys and people like that don't quite get enough credit for how much they've pushed American tennis," Robson continued.
"Even going into the US Open, Pegula was the number one American, but Coco definitely had more attention on her, which is great because their different profiles are being raised, but at the same time they were still pushing each other along and playing doubles together almost every week.
"It's just fantastic to see and the fact that there's now another name that you're throwing into the mix just makes everyone feel better."
Gauff currently sits a career-high third in the world rankings, though she has plenty of ground to make up on the top two, with Iga Swiatek currently edging out Sabalenka.
Robson expects that duo to trade places often as they battle to dominate the women's game, saying: "You definitely struggle to see Swiatek losing at Roland Garros, with the way that she goes on clay.
"I think it's going to be quite nice because they each have different strengths. You would almost say Sabalenka goes slightly better on a hard court and Iga is better on clay.
"I can see it almost swapping back and forth over the next few years, but Iga is going to be right in there, for sure."
Coco Gauff has every chance of adding to her 2023 US Open triumph by winning further grand slam titles in the coming years.
That is the view of former world number four Johanna Konta, who also believes it is "only a matter of time" before the American rises to the top of the WTA rankings.
Having lost the French Open final to Iga Swiatek as an 18-year-old in 2022, Gauff went one step further on home soil last September, becoming the first American teenager to win the US Open title since Serena Williams in 1999.
Gauff is looking to add to that triumph when the Australian Open begins on Sunday, and she is considered one of the favourites to claim the trophy after making a flying start to 2024.
The teenager captured her second straight Auckland Classic title on Sunday, fighting back to beat Elina Svitolina and make it seven wins from eight tour-level singles finals in her career.
Konta believes last year's US Open victory was just the start for Gauff, telling Stats Perform: "She's already a grand slam champion. So, she's got every possibility to win multiple grand slams.
"Once you're winning those tournaments, then it's only a matter of time before you get to world number one."
Gauff is up to third in the world rankings – the highest position of her career – though she has work to do to overhaul world number one Swiatek, who has won three of the last seven grand slams and is targeting her first Australian Open success after going out in the fourth round last year.
Konta, who failed to win a major during her own career despite reaching the last four at Melbourne Park, Roland Garros and Wimbledon, thinks the 22-year-old will be a force to be reckoned with for the foreseeable future.
"I think she's an incredibly consistent player, the level is just very consistent," Konta said of Swiatek.
"I think she will be one of the ones that will be there for a long time if she's just able to sustain that. I think she'll be one of the top handful."
British 14-year-old Hannah Klugman cemented her status as one of the most exciting prospects in the sport by winning the prestigious Orange Bowl title in Florida.
The historic under-18 tournament ranks alongside the grand slams as one of the biggest events in the junior game, with recent winners including grand slam champions Coco Gauff, Bianca Andreescu and Sofia Kenin.
Klugman defeated top seed Laura Samsonova in the quarter-finals and fourth seed Iva Jovic in the last four before a 6-3 6-3 success against American Tyra Grant in the final on Sunday.
She is the first British player to win the main girls’ title having finished runner-up in the under-14 tournament last year.
Klugman said: “It’s an amazing feeling. I played 14s last year and made the final. I was really gutted I didn’t get the win, and obviously to get the win at under-18s, I’m still just 14, it’s incredible. This is still just part of the journey, a little step, but it’s nice.
“I was walking past the poster with all the great players (who have won). I saw Coco Gauff. It’s good that I can be on that board. It doesn’t mean anything in the big picture but hopefully I can make it.”
The success caps a brilliant season for the schoolgirl, who reached her first junior grand slam quarter-final at the US Open as well as finishing runner-up in the girls’ doubles at Wimbledon with compatriot Isabelle Lacy.
Klugman, from Wimbledon, has also already started to make her mark in the women’s game, elevating her ranking inside the top 700.
Having seen Grant peg her back from 3-0 down in the second set, Klugman again showed her maturity to turn things back in her favour, finishing with a run of three games in a row.
“I’ve been so strong on court,” she said. “I was a match point down in one of my matches and also stepping up on those big points. I think I’m really taking on the shots, being aggressive. But for sure it’s my mentality, staying calm out there.”
Emma Raducanu will make her comeback at the ASB Classic in Auckland next month.
The 21-year-old has not played a match since a heavy loss to Jelena Ostapenko in Stuttgart in April. She subsequently withdrew from the Madrid Open and opted to undergo surgery on both wrists and one ankle.
Having initially targeted a comeback in late summer or early autumn, Raducanu has ended up missing the rest of the 2023 season.
Until recently there were doubts over whether she would make the start of next year but those have eased in recent weeks as she has stepped up her training.
And it has now been announced she will play at the WTA tournament in New Zealand beginning on January 1.
It will be Raducanu’s second appearance in Auckland and she will hope it is more positive than her debut in January, when she suffered an ankle injury during her second-round match and retired in tears.
The former US Open champion was able to recover to compete at the Australian Open but opted to undergo a procedure on her ankle to repair the damage in the spring.
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She criticised the “slippery” courts afterwards but has decided to accept a wild card to return.
Raducanu’s ranking has slipped to 296 and she faces a long road back to the top of the game, but it should give her the opportunity to fill in some of the steps she missed out thanks to her giant leap to stardom.
She can use a protected ranking of 103 to enter tournaments because of her long lay-off but that is currently not high enough to earn her a place in the main draw of the Australian Open.
Barring enough withdrawals of higher-ranked players, or a wild card, she will have to go through qualifying at a slam for the first time since her stunning title run in New York in 2021.
Reigning US Open champion Coco Gauff, former world number one Caroline Wozniacki and Wimbledon semi-finalist Elina Svitolina are among the other names confirmed for the Auckland tournament.
Johanna Konta became the first British woman to break into the world’s top 10 in 32 years after beating Madison Keys on this day in 2016 to reach the final of the China Open.
Konta, then 25, beat American world number nine Madison Keys 7-6 (1) 4-6 6-4 in the last four and was the first British player since Jo Durie in 1984 to enter the WTA’s top 10.
Despite losing to Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska in the final in Beijing, Konta ended the year as number 10 in the rankings.
Konta’s rapid rise coincided with her decision to team up with coach Esteban Carril in northern Spain 17 months earlier, when she was ranked 146th in the world.
She had reached the fourth round of the US Open to end 2015 inside the top 50 and earlier in 2016 reached the Australian Open semi-finals and won her first WTA title at Stanford.
Konta’s victory over Keys at the China Open was her seventh over a top-10 player in 2016.
She won her second WTA title in Sydney in early 2017, reached the quarter-finals at the Australian Open and triumphed at the Miami Open by beating former world number one Caroline Wozniacki in the final.
That success saw Konta rise to world number seven and she climbed to a career-high position of fourth in 2017 after becoming the first British woman to reach the Wimbledon singles semi-finals since Virginia Wade in 1978.
Konta lost to Venus Williams in the last four and after injury setbacks and loss of form in 2018, reached the French Open semi-finals and the US Open quarter-finals in 2019.
After further struggles with form and fitness – she was dogged by a right knee injury – Konta announced her retirement in December 2021.
Coco Gauff will take on Iga Swiatek in the semi-finals of the China Open after continuing her winning streak in Beijing.
The US Open champion made it 16 victories in a row with a straightforward 6-2 6-4 success against Greek Maria Sakkari, who saw her late charge to qualify for the WTA Finals end.
Second seed Swiatek had a tougher time against Caroline Garcia but fought back from a set down to defeat the Frenchwoman 6-7 (8) 7-6 (5) 6-1.
Swiatek won her first seven matches against Gauff without dropping a set but the American turned the tables in the semi-finals of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati in August prior to lifting her maiden grand slam title.
“Everybody who plays her, no matter the game style, you have to be prepared to run and just be ready for everything,” said Gauff.
“She’s in the position she is for a reason, she’s one of the best players in the world for a reason, and I’m just going to go out there and hopefully do a similar result to Cincinnati. If not, I’m really proud of the way that I’ve been doing to get to the semi-finals so far.”
Swiatek was twice within two points of defeat against Garcia, and she said: “For sure it was really intense. We played really fast. There was no time sometimes to think or analyse. I’m happy I used my intuition a lot.
“In both of these first sets, every ball counted. I’m happy that in the third I could just go for it.”
Coco Gauff extended her winning run to a season-leading 15 matches with victory over Veronika Kudermetova at the China Open.
The US Open champion is bidding for a third successive title and saved four set points in the opener against last week’s Tokyo champion Kudermetova before clinching a 7-6 (5) 6-2 win in Beijing.
Gauff will next face sixth seed Maria Sakkari, who battled to a 6-4 2-6 6-3 victory over home hope Wang Xinyu.
World number one Aryna Sabalenka is also through to the quarter-finals after seeing off unseeded Italian Jasmine Paolini 6-4 7-6 (4).
That set up an Australian Open final rematch against fifth seed Elena Rybakina, who defeated 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva on Wednesday.
Sabalenka won one of the matches of the season in Melbourne but lost to her rival in the Indian Wells final.
“I know that I’ll have some chances to win this match,” said the top seed. “In the last match I lost, I got nervous a little bit and I rushed a little bit more. The key against Elena is just to stay calm, stay aggressive, and not over-rush things.”
Ninth seed Caroline Garcia is also through to the last eight after defeating Anna Kalinina 6-3 6-2.
Emma Raducanu completed her fairytale in New York by winning the US Open singles title on this day in 2021.
The 18-year-old produced one of the greatest sporting shocks of all time when she beat Leylah Fernandez 6-4 6-3 in the final.
Playing in just her second grand slam tournament, the 18-year-old from Kent won all 20 sets she played in qualifying and the main draw to become the first British woman to win a grand slam singles title since Virginia Wade lifted the Wimbledon trophy in 1977.
Raducanu was sitting her A Levels little more than three months previously and had not played a competitive match for more than a year but she burst onto the big stage like no one before her.
Her achievement was unprecedented. No qualifier had ever reached a slam final before while she became the first woman ever to win a title in as few as two tournaments, and the youngest since Maria Sharapova triumphed at Wimbledon in 2004.
“I’m still just so shocked, still in the moment,” she said immediately afterwards. “I can’t believe I came through that last service game. It honestly means absolutely everything to hold this trophy. I just don’t want to let go.
“Yesterday and this morning there were a few weird feelings that I couldn’t put my finger on, I didn’t know what it was, but I think that’s just normal and when I came out on court I felt completely at home, business as usual, I was just focusing one point at a time.
“I think the level was extremely high, both of us were playing unbelievable tennis. I had to fight really hard to cling onto that first set and then just keep my nose in front in the second.”
Raducanu’s victory saw her achieve great commercial success, earning lucrative partnerships with a number of high-end brands such as Dior, Porsche and Evian.
But success on the court has not been as easy to come by and her career has stalled since her unlikely win, with injuries severely restricting any progress.
Coco Gauff says Serena and Venus Williams are the reason she has won the US Open.
American teenager Gauff picked up her first grand slam title at her home major, coming from a set down to beat Aryna Sabalenka 2-6 6-3 6-2.
Gauff’s father Corey used to take his young daughter to Flushing Meadows to watch the Williams sisters in action.
And the gilded duo, with eight US Open titles between them, inspired an eight-year-old Gauff, filmed dancing in the stands inside Arthur Ashe Stadium, to follow in their footsteps.
“It’s crazy. I mean, they’re the reason why I have this trophy, to be honest,” said Gauff.
“They have allowed me to believe in this dream, you know, growing up. You know, there wasn’t too many black tennis players dominating the sport.
“It was literally, at that time when I was younger, it was just them that I can remember.
“Obviously more came because of their legacy. So it made the dream more believable. But all the things that they had to go through, they made it easier for someone like me to do this.
“I mean, you look back at the history with Indian Wells with Serena (when she was booed in 2001), all she had to go through, Venus fighting for equal pay.
“Yeah, it’s just, like, it’s crazy and it’s an honour to be in that same kind of line-up as them.”
Gauff’s day of destiny saw her became the first American teenager to triumph at Flushing Meadows since Serena Williams in 1999.
The latter’s final farewell to tennis at the same championships last year left a colossal void in tennis in the US.
So it felt entirely appropriate that Gauff, the heir apparent to the 23-time grand slam winner, stepped into her shoes 12 months later.
Gauff used her acceptance speech to thank “the people who didn’t believe in me”.
The 19-year-old was at a low ebb after losing in the first round at Wimbledon, but she has since won 18 of her past 19 matches and picked up three titles, including the big one in the Big Apple.
“I would say for sure a little bit after the Wimbledon loss, honestly I just felt people were like, ‘oh, she’s hit her peak and she’s done’. It was all hype,” she added.
“I see the comments. People don’t think I see it but I see it. I’m very aware of tennis Twitter.
“Honestly after that, I was like, OK, I have a lot of work to do. So I think this means a lot to me. I wish I could give this trophy to my past self so she can be, like, all those tears are for this moment.”
Iga Swiatek’s reign as US Open champion, and world number one, was ended by her nemesis Jelena Ostapenko.
The 22-year-old Pole had not dropped a set on her way to the fourth round, but she had never beaten Ostapenko in three previous career meetings.
Swiatek took the first set with relative ease but then Ostapenko’s sledgehammer of a forehand started finding its mark to level the match.
A one-sided final set saw former French Open champion Ostapenko triumph 3-6 6-3 6-1.
Swiatek’s defeat means that Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus will take over as world number one after the tournament.
Ostapenko will face Coco Gauff in the quarter-finals after the teenager ended the grand slam comeback of mother-of-two Caroline Wozniacki.
The 19-year-old came from a break down in the first and third sets to win both and complete a 6-3 3-6 6-1 victory.
Wozniacki’s return has been one of the stories of New York this year, having come out of retirement after more than three years and two children later.
The 33-year-old former world number one has looked as though she has never been away, but a fired-up Gauff proved just too strong in the deciding set.
Wozniacki got off to a dream start with a break in the first game and a 2-0 lead.
But Gauff quickly got back on the board, levelling at 3-3 before going on to clinch the first set without dropping another game.
Wozniacki cranked up the pressure in the second and Gauff started feeling it as her suspect forehand began to misfire and she was broken for 5-3 as the Dane levelled the match.
Gauff looked uncomfortable as she dropped serve again at the start of the decider, but after pointedly ignoring the advice of coach Brad Gilbert, the wound-up American began firing backhand winners as if they were going out of fashion.
She reeled off the next six games to clinch the victory and let out a loud scream of triumph after converting match point.
“Definitely getting it to 2-1 (in the third set) was the turning point,” said Gauff.
“I got broke and I showed I was still in the match. I started to go for my shots.
“Caroline, it’s like she’s never left, the level she played was amazing. It’s weird because I grew up watching Caroline and when she won the Australian Open, so to be on court with her today was an honour.
“She definitely gets to a lot of balls. I felt a bit like I was playing myself. I knew I had to play aggressive and go for my shots. In some moments I miss but I was happy I could get back and refocus.”
It will be the fifth grand slam quarter-final of Gauff’s still-fledgling career and her second at Flushing Meadows.
“I’ve been in this position before,” she added. “And I think I have confidence in myself that I can go even further.”
Teenager Coco Gauff ended the grand-slam comeback of mother-of-two Caroline Wozniacki to reach the quarter-finals of the US Open.
The 19-year-old came from a break down in the first and third sets to win both and complete a 6-3 3-6 6-1 victory.
Wozniacki’s return has been one of the stories of New York this year, having come out of retirement after more than three years and two children later.
The 33-year-old former world number one has looked as though she has never been away, but a fired-up Gauff proved just too strong in the deciding set.
Wozniacki got off to a dream start with a break in the first game and a 2-0 lead.
But Gauff quickly got back on the board, levelling at 3-3 before going on to clinch the first set without dropping another game.
Wozniacki cranked up the pressure in the second and Gauff started feeling it as her suspect forehand began to misfire and she was broken for 5-3 as the Dane levelled the match.
Gauff looked uncomfortable as she dropped serve again at the start of the decider, but after pointedly ignoring the advice of coach Brad Gilbert, the wound-up American began firing backhand winners as if they were going out of fashion.
She reeled off the next six games to clinch the victory and let out a loud scream of triumph after converting match point.
“Definitely getting it to 2-1 (in the third set) was the turning point,” said Gauff.
“I got broke and I showed I was still in the match. I started to go for my shots.
“Caroline, it’s like she’s never left, the level she played was amazing. It’s weird because I grew up watching Caroline and when she won the Australian Open, so to be on court with her today was an honour.
“She definitely gets to a lot of balls. I felt a bit like I was playing myself. I knew I had to play aggressive and go for my shots. In some moments I miss but I was happy I could get back and refocus.”
It will be the fifth grand slam quarter-final of Gauff’s still-fledgling career and her second at Flushing Meadows.
“I’ve been in this position before,” she added. “And I think I have confidence in myself that I can go even further.”
Ons Jabeur will bounce back from her second straight Wimbledon final defeat by winning a "deserved" grand slam, according to Iva Majoli.
Jabeur was beaten 6-4 6-4 in the Wimbledon showpiece match by Marketa Vondrousova, who claimed her first grand slam and became the first ever unseeded champion at SW19.
The loss was Jabeur's second Wimbledon final defeat in as many years, with the Tunisian world number six still yet to win a grand slam despite reaching three finals in the last two years.
However, Majoli, who won the French Open in 1997 when she beat Martina Hingis in the final to deny her Swiss opponent the Grand Slam, is confident Jabeur will get over her recent disappointment by finally winning a major final.
"I think this loss was tough," Majoli told Stats Perform. "I'm sure everyone was expecting Ons [to win] and I love Ons.
"I think in the end there was maybe too much pressure on her. But from the beginning, I said that it was going to be a tough match.
"I think this loss was probably tougher than the one last year and I think she was expecting a lot from herself and I think she was expecting that she's going to win it. But life writes stories and it's not always how you expect.
"I think she will come back and I really wish she's going to win a slam because she deserves it."
Vondrousova's victory was historic, as she became the lowest-ranked player to win the Wimbledon ladies' title.
She also became the first unseeded woman to reach the final in 60 years.
Asked whether Vondrousova's unlikely triumph was a sign of strength or weakness in the women's game, Majoli replied: "There have been a lot of ups and downs, there have been a lot of wins and then disappearances and then wins again.
"But I think there is a strong young generation coming up. It was great to see Marketa Vondrousova winning.
"Marketa being a lefty is very dangerous. She was playing amazingly the whole tournament. And I always think the left-handers are a danger, like Petra Kvitova. So I would love to see them doing much, much better in the tournaments and in the rankings."
Andy Murray will leave a lasting legacy on British tennis after his "historic" Wimbledon exploits when retirement eventually comes, according to Marion Bartoli.
Murray and Bartoli both triumphed at Wimbledon in 2013, the Scot defeating Novak Djokovic in straight sets and the Frenchwomen overcoming Sabine Lisicki.
A troublesome hip injury and subsequent surgery has caused issues in recent years for Murray, who also lifted the Wimbledon title in 2016 – adding to his US Open crown four years earlier.
The 36-year-old confirmed before the Queen's Championship last month that he has a period in mind for ending his professional career, leading Bartoli to hail Murray's impact on the sport.
"It's more for British tennis because the buzz when he won Wimbledon in 2013 for the first time was just insane – basically the whole country tuning in to watch that match," she told Stats Perform.
"Even the whole press, who are normally quite harsh with the players, especially the tabloids, were just cheering on for him because it was so historic.
"I can just remember the dinner we had at the Champions' Ball with Andy and his mother and my father and myself and it just felt like dinner with a mother and son, father and daughter, just being on the top of the world and just winning.
"Judy could say 'My son just won Wimbledon' and my dad could say 'My daughter just won Wimbledon' – it was very much that feeling. It was so special."
Murray, who has won two ATP Challenger titles this season, only made it as far as the second round at Wimbledon this month, losing to Stefanos Tsitsipas in a battling display on Centre Court.
His appearance at the British major represented another major milestone nevertheless, given injuries seemed set to curtail his playing days after the 2023 Australian Open.
Bartoli added: "For Andy, after all his surgeries and everything, it's about how much he can still enjoy his tennis.
"When he feels that's it, that every day on the practice court is not as enjoyable as usual, and he's dragging himself to practice, that’s when the passion is vanishing and you know it's time [to retire].
"It's not that difficult of a decision when that happens. When you still have that passion and fire but your body doesn't follow anymore, then it's slightly more difficult.
"In many ways, Andy had a second chance. He'd sort of announced his retirement when he lost in the Australian Open and everyone was crying.
"Then he decided to come back and he had those successes and those great matches and epics, so maybe he already feels like he had his second chance.
"He'll walk away with a beautiful family, a business – a hotel, I think, in Scotland where he grew up – so he has so many things to look forward to. I think he'll be a very happy man."
Murray's diminishing influence on the upper echelons of tennis marks a downturn in British fortunes, with Cameron Norrie seemingly the next in line.
"For the British side of tennis – you have Cameron Norrie – but you feel that especially with [Carlos] Alcaraz coming in and all those players it's going to be more difficult to win a slam," Bartoli continued.
"But he's going to have his chance as well. He's close to being top 10."
Caroline Wozniacki's choice to return to tennis will be "an amazing story", says Marion Bartoli, after the former world number one reversed her retirement.
The Danish player previously called time on her career in 2020, and has only played sporadically since in invitational matches.
But the former Australian Open winner confirmed her intention to return to professional tennis in June, with wildcard spots in Montreal and Cincinnati ahead of the US Open.
Bartoli, who quit initially in 2013 before an unsuccessful comeback attempt of her own led to a definitive retirement in 2018, believes Wozniacki can still deliver at the top of the women's game.
"I actually saw her at Wimbledon, and she was playing an invitational with Cara Black in the doubles," 2013 Wimbledon winner Bartoli told Stats Perform.
"She was wearing tape on her calf and having small sort of tears here and there just because her body is getting back into the routines of playing every day.
"But I think she feels like it's time for her to come back as a family, with her husband, travelling with her kids and just being a family and going on tour and live it.
"Being a family and travelling and showing your kids that your mum can be a mum on one day and can be a tennis player on the other... if that is her inspiration [for coming back], by any means, I support that 100 per cent.
"I think it will be an amazing story once again. Caroline has always been an incredible competitor. I think if she can find that level, we're going to have some amazing fights at the top of women's tennis
"If she can play back at her best, the level to go extremely deep and maybe to have another grand slam."
Bartoli also reflected on a disappointing Wimbledon campaign for Iga Swiatek, as the latter vies with Aryna Sabalenka atop the WTA rankings.
"The number one in the race [to beat Swiatek] is Sabalenka," she added. "Since the beginning of the year, she's actually the player who has won the most matches.
"But she has been slightly more consistent [than Swiatek]. The US Open really will tell who will be at the top of the women's game in terms of ranking.
"Right now it's quite even, but Aryna has a little bit of an upper hand. So we're going to see. But Iga Swiatek on clay for sure is the best player in the world."
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