BREAKING BARRIERS: VICTORIA AZARENKA ON MOTHERHOOD AND TENNIS

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A Game-Changing Initiative

Two-time Grand Slam cham­pi­on Vic­to­ria Azaren­ka sees the new mater­ni­ty fund for WTA play­ers as a turn­ing point for wom­en’s ten­nis. The ini­tia­tive, ful­ly fund­ed by Sau­di Arabia’s Pub­lic Invest­ment Fund (PIF), offers finan­cial sup­port for mater­ni­ty leave, parental assis­tance, and fer­til­i­ty treat­ments, includ­ing grants for egg and embryo freez­ing and IVF.

“It’s big­ger than just sport,” says Azaren­ka, a WTA play­ers’ coun­cil rep­re­sen­ta­tive. “Peo­ple have fam­i­lies, and it’s cru­cial to keep this con­ver­sa­tion going.”

A Personal Mission

For Azaren­ka, this ini­tia­tive is per­son­al. After win­ning back-to-back Aus­tralian Open titles in 2012 and 2013, she gave birth to her son, Leo, in 2016. At the time, the WTA had no for­mal mater­ni­ty leave pol­i­cy, forc­ing her and oth­ers, includ­ing Ser­e­na Williams, to ques­tion their careers.

“When I became preg­nant, the imme­di­ate ques­tion was: Can I come back?” Azaren­ka recalls. “I was in the top five, yet I had doubts. There were no rules to sup­port play­ers in my sit­u­a­tion.”

It wasn’t until 2019 that the WTA intro­duced pro­tec­tions for return­ing moth­ers, includ­ing adjust­ments to the rank­ing sys­tem. Since then, 50 play­ers have ben­e­fit­ed.

A Bold Step Forward

The mater­ni­ty fund is part of a broad­er WTA part­ner­ship with PIF, announced in 2024. Sau­di Arabia’s involve­ment in ten­nis has sparked debate: leg­endary play­ers Mar­ti­na Navratilo­va and Chris Evert have crit­i­cized the move Yet, Azaren­ka remains focused on the pos­i­tive impact.

“I haven’t been there, so I won’t judge with­out see­ing it myself,” she says. “But I appre­ci­ate that they saw the val­ue in this ini­tia­tive and want­ed to sup­port it.”

Redefining Careers in Women’s Tennis

Azaren­ka believes this fund will empow­er a new gen­er­a­tion of play­ers, allow­ing them to build fam­i­lies with­out end­ing their careers.

“This is unprece­dent­ed in sports,” she explains. “Play­ers now have the chance to extend their careers and plan their futures dif­fer­ent­ly. It’s no longer just ‘before fam­i­ly’: they can have a fam­i­ly and keep com­pet­ing.”

She hopes this is only the begin­ning, with future improve­ments in child­care and health­care ser­vices for play­ers.

Champion Moms Leading the Way

Azaren­ka is not alone. Car­o­line Woz­ni­ac­ki, Nao­mi Osa­ka, Eli­na Svi­toli­na, and Belin­da Ben­cic have all returned to the WTA Tour as moth­ers. Kim Cli­jsters remains the only mom to win a Grand Slam title post-mater­ni­ty, but Azaren­ka is deter­mined to change that.

“I hope to be the next,” she says with a smile. “We’ve been close, Ser­e­na was close, I was close. But one day soon, we’ll see a Grand Slam cham­pi­on mom again.”