Wozniacki: I’m hungry again

 

Originally published on: 20/02/13 00:00

The Dane was in scintillating form on Tuesday as she cruised past Lucie Safarova 6-2 6-2 to reach the second round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

Wozniacki, who spent 67 weeks at the top of the world rankings between October 2010 and January 2012, has slipped to No. 10 after a dip in form last season, suffering first-round exits at both Wimbledon and the US Open.

However, the 22-year-old, who has 20 WTA titles to her name but is yet to win a Grand Slam, believes she has rediscovered her spark.

“I’m just really enjoying tennis and happy to be out there,” Wozniacki said. “I think at one point it felt like just a job.

“Every camera and every person’s eyes on you all the time, and there’s media, sponsors, fans, there’s everything. You want to please everyone and do your best out there on court.

“All of a sudden I was going to practice, and I was like, ‘OK, I’m winning almost everything at the moment and you need to motivate yourself’, and all of a sudden you don’t win as much. You’re like ‘Oh, it’s not as fun as it used to be’.

“You just need to step up and say ‘OK, you do what you love and you enjoy what you do’. I just feel like I have really gotten that hunger back and that enjoyment of the game like when I was a little kid. I just wanted to play. I just wanted to be out there.”

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