US Open women - Caroline Wozniacki, Iga Swiatek advance - ESPN

NEW YORK — Caroline Wozniacki's comeback to tennis and the US Open rolled on Friday with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 victory over American Jennifer Brady, another player making a return to the game after a yearslong absence.

The 33-year-old from Denmark raised her fists and glanced over to her husband in the stands when she closed out the match to move into the round of 16 at Flushing Meadows in just her third tournament back after 3½ years in retirement.

«To actually be here at Arthur Ashe Stadium with all of you supporting me is a dream come true,» she said in her postmatch interview. «What an honor this is.»

Top-seeded Iga Swiatek, meanwhile, didn't hold back against close friend Kaja Juvan, defeating the Slovenian qualifier 6-0, 6-1 in just 49 minutes.

Wozniacki, who will play the winner of the match later Friday between No. 6 Coco Gauff and 32nd-seeded Elise Mertens, said she won't start thinking about that until after she goes home and celebrates with her 2-year-old daughter, Olivia, and 10-month old son, James.

The former World No. 1 and 2018 Australian Open champion left the sport in early 2020 to start a family, and later spent time working as a TV analyst. Now ranked 623rd, she needed a wild card to get into the US Open main draw and says she still has what it takes to make a deep run.

The 28-year-old Brady, the 2021 Australian Open finalist, is making her own return to the game after two years away from the tour because of injuries, including a fracture in her right knee and a tear in her left foot.

Wozniacki, a two-time US Open finalist, dropped the first set and trailed 2-0 in the second before winning 12 of the final 14 games to take the match. It will be her first trip to the second week of a major since the 2018