Wimbledon as a mother is whole new ball game, says Victoria Azarenka | Sport

Wimbledon as a mother is whole new ball game, says Victoria Azarenka | Sport

It may have the best creche of any grand slam tournament, but playing Wimbledon still presents challenges for new mothers, the former No 1 Victoria Azarenka has found.

SW19 has seen at least four mothers of young children compete in singles games on its courts. And for Azarenka, 27, her first-round victory came just six months after giving birth to son Leo.

The unseeded Belarusian said her Wimbledon scheduling had been “tough” on her as a new mother, as she found herself in a “to be announced” match on Court 1 at the end of the day’s play and not finishing until 9pm.

Asked what it was like not knowing when she was due to play, she smiled: “It is unusual. You know I had to be here the whole day which, for a new mum, is a little tough.” She added: “Hopefully, I won’t play like this again.”

She had not brought son Leo with her to the grounds, saying it was too disruptive to his routine. “This is way past his bedtime. So I wouldn’t do that to him,” she said, after dispatching American CiCi Bellis 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 to make it to the second round.

Azarenka, a two-time Wimbledon semi-finalist who was No 1 in 2012 and is now ranked 683 â€" is one of only a few elite female players to come back after becoming mothers. The most successful was Belgian Kim Clijsters, a mother of three, who won three grand slams after giving birth to her first daughter.

Tatjana Maria, 29, from Germany, who returned to professional tennis after the birth of daughter Charlotte, four, said both Serena Williams’ pregnancy, if she returns to competing, and Azarenka’s had raised awareness of the issue.

Maria, who beat Russia’s Anastasia Potapova to reach the second round, said: “I hope it will mean that all the tournaments will have a creche, because in the men’s tournaments we sometimes have one, but in the women’s not. I hope that can change.

“Here [at Wimbledon] the creche is the best. You bring your children, they eat together, they do activities.

“It is the most beautiful thing in the world if you play a match, and after,you go to her and you see [that] to her it doesn’t matter how you play. She is always happy. If you win, she is, ‘OK mama, you won a trophy.’ Or if you don’t win, she says, ‘Oh, it doesn’t matter.’ And she also learns how to win and to lose. So that is nice.”

Tatjana Maria at a tournament in Southsea. Photograph: Harry Murphy/Getty Images

She said three female players were now using the creche more usually occupied by the children of male players: Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko, 30, Russian Evgeniya Rodina, 28, and herself. “Victoria’s baby is maybe a bit too little still,” Maria added.

Of combining motherhood with professional tennis, she said: “I think everybody should do it. It’s really nice. I spoke to Victoria [Azarenka] over the last days. She also said it is amazing to be back with a child, and it is. It’s nicer to travel with a child, to have time to enjoy as a family outside of the court.”

Maria said she had not experienced the scheduling uncertainties that Azarenka had seen. “But for her maybe it is a little bit different, because she is playing a big tournament right away. I started from zero, so it was a different story than to come right away to Wimbledon.”

Responding to Azarenka’s comments, a Wimbledon spokesperson said the match was “scheduled as ‘not before 5pm’ on the official order of play, so the competitors have the assurance of knowing their matches won’t be called to court before 5pm and can plan their day around that”.

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