Motherhood stars on Centre Court
More players opt to interrupt career to have children
LONDON — When Serena Williams steps out on Centre Court to play Evgeniya Rodina in Wimbledon’s fourth round Monday, it will be a rare meeting of mom vs. mom.
Such matchups could happen with greater frequency as parenthood becomes increasingly popular on the women’s tennistour.
There were a half-dozen mothers in the singles main draw at the All England Club this year: 23-time Grand Slam champion Williams; another formerNo. 1 and two-time major champion, Victoria Azarenka; Rodina, Kateryna Bondarenko, Tatjana Maria
Wimbledon
andVera Zvonareva.
Two more moms entered the doubles event, Mandy Minella and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez. A ninth, Patty Schnyder, lost in qualifying forsingles.
“At different points, we’ve had one or two mothers at a time. And then it’s grown to three or four mothers. And now we’ve seen that we have more, at present, than we’ve had in the past. There was Margaret Court. Evonne Goolagong. [Kim] Clijsters,” saidKathleen Stroia, WTA Senior VP for sport sciences and medicine, naming mothers whowon Grand Slam titles.
Williams is competing in her second major tournament since having a daughter, Olympia, in September. Motherhood is an important partof who she is now.
The 36-year-old American has spoken openly about a healthscare during childbirth and other issues relating to child rearing. She also talked about the precedent the All England Club set by seeding her25th, based on past success that includes seven Wimbledon titles, even though she wasranked outside the top 150 after missing more than a full season, first while pregnant, thenafter giving birth.
“It will be really nice for thesewomen to take a year off, and have the most amazing thing in the world, then come back to their job and not have to start from the bottom,” she said
As a member of the WTA player council, Azarenka has been involved with discussions about how the tour can help the growing group of moms. Among the topics: the “protected ranking” policy, which allows players to enter a certain number of tournaments based on where they were ranked before taking time off because of an injury, illness or pregnancy; whether a similar rule should be establishedwith regards to seeding.