Longtime Canadian No. 1 Aleksandra Wozniak is finally back after shoulder surgery

Aleksandra Wozniak announced her long-awaited return to tournament tennis on her Facebook page a few days ago.

But she told Eh Game she wasn't sure where the comeback would begin, because she was waiting for word on some tournament wild cards.

Finally, on Wednesday, the date was set: the 27-year-old from Blainville, Que. will play her first match since last year's US Open at the Winnipeg National Bank Challenger, a $25,000 ITF Pro Circuit held a week after the end of the Rogers Cup and the week before the US Open – the week of Aug. 24.

There were other options; Tennis Canada could have given her a wild card into the Rogers Cup in Toronto next week, or at least one into the qualifying. But the powers-that-be decided not to; Sharon Fichman, who has been injured much of the last year, did receive a wild card into the qualifying.

Another option was the Odlum Brown VanOpen, held the week between the Rogers Cup and Winnipeg, and boasting a strong field this year in its new slot on the calendar. The tournament would have loved to have her, but the control over distribution of its wild cards isn't up to the tournament, but jointly held by Tennis Canada and the US Tennis Association.

The Winnipeg event is the same week as the US Open qualifying and with a protected injury ranking, Wozniak could enter the qualifying. Players can use their protected ranking for two Grand Slams in the same year; clearly the Canadian opted to save them for 2016.

There are no other small tournaments in North America during the US Open period; conceivably, the next tournament Wozniak would play would be the Coupe Banque Nationale in Quebec City, the week of Sept. 14 - assuming she is granted a wild card into that event.

It has been a long road back for Wozniak, who missed nearly a year previously with the shoulder as she did everything possible to avoid the surgery, which was performed in Sept. 2014.

But even as she climbed back from outside the top 400 earlier that year and broke into the top 100 just as she hit Flushing Meadows, the shoulder wasn't right. It limited how much she could practice, and serve, and play, and it was always a concern.

Some days she could play close to her level, other days she couldn't.

But as Wozniak underwent some three hours of physio a day and finally got back on court to his tennis balls in April, she told Eh Game she always knew she would come back.

Now, it's finally happening.

Meanwhile, the coach she was working with before her absence, Frenchwoman Nathalie Tauziat, is now working with 14-year-old Canadian junior prospect Bianca Andreescu. Wozniak has been working with father Antoni, who coached her for much of her career, as she prepared her comeback.