After seeing Venus Williams play at 43 years old in her 31st consecutive season as a professional, the WTA 1000 tournament in Indian Wells has witnessed the return to the elite of three former number ones returning to the competition after motherhood: the German Angelique Kerber, the Danish Caroline Wozniacki and the Japanese Naomi Osaka are already among the best in the so-called big fifth shortly after becoming mothers.
Kerber and Wozniacki will meet tomorrow in the round of 16 while Osaka meets the Belgian Mertens today for a place among the 16 best in the American tournament.
The break that motherhood has brought to their sporting careers, with the difficulties in reconciling family life, physical and mental preparation, and training to return to the highest level of competition, has not prevented the three players from recovering their best point of performance. shape and become competitive again.
In Indian Wells, one of the greatest showcases of world tennis, up to seven singles players have experienced motherhood. Four are still in competition, among them Osaka (26), Kerber (36) and Wozniacki (33), who have accumulated eight Grand Slam titles (4 for the Japanese, 3 for the German and 1 for the Danish).
Kerber, who became a mother in February 2023, returned to competition in early January after a break of a year and a half. Before Indian Wells she had played the first qualifying rounds of the Australian Open and the WTA 500 in Linz (Austria), and had won three victories in California, the last two against top 20 players such as Jelena Ostapenko (10th) and Veronika Kudermetova (19th).
“It’s certainly not easy to come back after such a long absence and do it at a high level. This takes time and being patient,” explained the German, who took returning after motherhood as “the biggest challenge” of her life. sports career, after having won three majors (Australia and US Open in 2016 and Wimbledon in 2018). “I have trained for four months without rest,” indicated the current number 607 in the WTA ranking.
Her friend, the Danish Caroline Wozniacki, currently 204 in the WTA, also fell into oblivion and fell to the bottom of the world rankings. At the age of 29, in December 2019, she announced that she was leaving tennis to start a family with her husband, David Lee. . She had two children practically in a row, Olivia and James, in June 2021 and October 2022, and she spent three years off the court, between January 2020 and August 2023, when she returned at the US Open.
“We are very friends, Angie and I, we always talked and she asked me about motherhood during the time she was pregnant,” explained Wozniacki, who now takes the tournaments with the same professionalism, but with the license of being able to spend a day with her children instead of training. He simply adjusts himself: “Now I play fewer tournaments than before and I travel with the whole family, which is not easy. Not every week will go well, but if I like it I do it.”
Naomi Osaka, 26 years old, number 287 in the WTA ranking, became the mother of a girl in July 2023, so she was on maternity leave for just over a year, between September 2022 and January 2024.
The Japanese, with a changed physique, has been gaining pace and fitness in these three months of the year, with elimination in the first round of the Australian Open and reaching the quarterfinals of the WTA 1000 in Doha. Now, after eliminating the 15th player in the world, the Russian Liudmila Samsonova, she faces the Belgian Elise Mertens (28th) to reach the round of 16 in Indian Wells.
“It’s a real pleasure to come back after being a mother. Since I was pregnant I wanted to play again. But when I come home now I’m a mother.”
The fourth mother in contention in Indian Wells is the Ukrainian Elina Svitolina (29 years old), the 17th player in the world, who became a mother in October 2022, along with fellow tennis player Gaël Monfils. Only the Frenchman didn’t have to stop his career. She interrupted it until April 2023, and she returned strongly, showing the way to other tennis mothers: she reached the quarterfinals of Roland Garros and the semifinals of Wimbledon just a few months after giving birth.
