By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka are back on the tennis court competing for tennis glory after both became mothers within ten months of each other.
Both are seeking to join a very exclusive club of women to win major singles titles as mothers.
Williams gave birth to daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian on September 1, 2017, eight months after winning the Australian Open, her 23rd career major singles title. Azarenka, the 2012 and 2013 Australian Open champion, gave birth to son Leo on December 19, 2016.
There are a total of six mothers who have won major singles titles in the history of tennis.
Kim Clijsters – Clisters was the most recent woman to win a major singles title as a mother. She who won the first of three major singles titles as a mom at the 2009 US Open. She followed by winning the U.S. Open again in 2010 and the Australian Open in 2011. Clijsters gave birth to her first child, daughter Jada on Feb. 27, 2008. After training to play an exhibition match to test the new roof over Centre Court at Wimbledon, Clijsters became motivated to make a comeback to the WTA Tour. She played two events on the WTA Tour in her post-child-birth comeback, reaching the quarterfinals of Cincinnati and the round of 16 of Toronto and incredibly won the US Open in her third event of her comeback as an unranked player. Clijsters joined Evonne Goolagong as the only un-ranked player to win a major when she won the 1977 Australian Open also when she returned to the women’s circuit after giving birth to a daughter. After more than a year off the circuit, Goolagong won the Australian Open after winning four tournaments on the Australian summer circuit over a six week period in late 1977
Evonne Goolagong – Goolagong beat Chris Evert Lloyd in the 1980 Wimbledon final. Her first daughter, Kelly, was born on May 12, 1977 and Goolagong won the Australian Open at year’s end after playing only six events.
Margaret Court – The Australian who was the most prolific winner of majors championships ever (62 titles in singles, doubles and mixed) actually played the 1971 Wimbledon women’s singles final while pregnant with her first child, son Daniel, losing to Evonne Goolagong. Court, however, returned to win the Australian, French and U.S. Opens in 1973.
Sarah Palfrey Cooke – This American star did not defend her 1941 U.S. title due to pregnancy (she was married to standout American player Elwood Cooke), but she won the 1945 U.S. title, beating Pauline Betz as a 33-year-old mother.
Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman – She was challenged by her father to win the U.S. Championship after she became a mom. In her first return appearance, she lost in the 1915 singles final to Molla Mallory, but she did turn the trick until 1919, when at 32 years old, she beat Marion Zinderstein Jessup 6-1, 6-2 to win her fourth U.S. title.
Dorothea Douglass Chambers – The British great won two of her Wimbledon titles after the birth of her first child (1910, 1911) and two more after the birth of her second child (1913, 1914).
