Caroline Wozniacki, well known for her adept skill on the tennis court, surprised fans with a recent announcement of pursing another passion, according to an article completed by CBS Sports.  The tennis player, formerly the number one ranking player in the world, announced that she intends to run the New York City Marathon; the event would be her first marathon.  As a result of the strenuous run, Wozniacki has already begun training intensively, which doesn’t take place until the second of November.

Many may be surprised that Wozniacki would require additional training for the marathon, outside of her already accelerated preparation program for tennis.  It is true; she does run quite a bit to prepare herself for matches.  However, the article reported that she has never completed a run longer than ten kilometers, which obviously falls short of the demands of a marathon.  Therefore, despite her thorough efforts to prepare herself for the upcoming U.S. Open, Wozniacki continues to add to her training schedule, as she has a lot of preparation to attend to before she can hope to be successful in the New York Marathon.

The article did not explain why Wozniacki specifically chose the New York City Marathon as her first choice.  However, with the women’s final for the U.S. Open scheduled for the eighth of September, perhaps it merely made sense to Wozniacki to stay in New York and continue to contribute to the city’s sports endeavors.  The article did, however, speculate behind Wozniacki’s reasoning for choosing to run the marathon at this specific time.  The tennis player was engaged to Rory McIlroy—a golf player also always on the edge of the number one ranking in the world—until he broke off the engagement in late May.  Many have speculated that this is what gave Wozniacki the final push to pursue her dream, as a means of distraction.  However, the article denounces this theory, as it includes a statement from Wozniacki to the Associated Press, in which she claims that the two events aren’t tied at all.  To bolster this defense, she claims that her performance in this year’s Wimbledon indicated to her that her body was finally ready, and that she could possibly manage a marathon before the end of the year.

Regardless of her motivation, Wozniacki has chosen New York as her ideal marathon setting and has shown further support of the city in her preparations.  She tweeted asking for financial support for the charity she’s running for—New York based Team for Kids, which features adult runners who donate their winnings towards children living in the city that are in need.