A MOTHER’S DAY PARADE
Serena leads charge of mums
SERENA WILLIAMS has revealed the massive down side to playing as a mum as the US Open becomes Mother’s Day today.
Remarkably, three of the final five women’s last- 16 matches involve parents of young children, with Williams leading the way against Greek No13 seed Maria Sakkari.
Another former world No1 Victoria Azarenka, who faces Karolina Muchova, is the mother of three- year- old Leo and Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova gave birth to Alexander 17 months ago.
Only three women have won Grand Slam titles after becoming mothers, Margaret Court, Yvonne Goolagong and Kim Clijsters.
Williams won the most recent of her 23 Grand Slam singles titles in Australia while pregnant with Alexis, who turned three last week.
And she admits that being a mum carries a massive disadvantage when it comes to playing tennis.
However, if she can make history by matching Court’s tally of 24 Major titles here, she is keen nevertheless for it to be a family affair.
“I’m just so happy because there are so many moms in the event, obviously because I am one,” she said. “I just have a totally new respect for moms.
“I would never have though I would be playing as a mom and the plus is that one day your daughter can say she was there. Whether she remembers or not, we can always have pictures.
“But o other than that, it’s just minus, m because I am not with her. I’m not around her.
“It’s hard. For me, it’s hard, because I spend a tremendous amount of time with her.”
For 32- year- old Pironkova, playing as a mum h has been unexpectedly rewarding.
This is her first fir tournament since Wimbledon 2017 but she has already dumped out the champion that year, Garbine Muguruza, on the way to today’s clash with Alize Cornet.
“There was a time, maybe for one and a half, two years after I became a mum when I didn’t picture coming back to the tour at all,” she admitted. In all, nine mums started the competition but the two in the top half of the draw had both gone by the second round.