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The tennis-superstar mum: It’s the birth of a new era – almost
There’s a raft of top-ranked players competing in this year’s Australian Open who are also mums. But what seems like a new trend is, in fact, anything but.
By Alan Attwood
Evonne Goolagong Cawley holds daughter Kelly after winning a tournament in 1978. Credit: Getty Images
How should we remember Dorothea Lambert Chambers, an English vicar’s daughter? Let us count the ways. She won seven Wimbledon singles titles between 1903 and 1914. She wrote a manual, Lawn Tennis for Ladies, in which she advocated the importance of not remaining “absolutely immobile” on court. She figured in the famous Wimbledon singles final of 1919 in which, aged 40 and wearing long sleeves and a longer skirt, she lost an epic battle with Frenchwoman Suzanne Lenglen, just 20, in a risqué outfit revealing calves and forearms.
But her most significant achievement was juggling titles and tots. She won two Wimbledon championships after the birth of her first child; another two after her second. This is excellent news for a modern wave of tennis mums. Grand slam winners Victoria Azarenka and Caroline Wozniacki have already made comebacks after having babies. Angelique Kerber and Naomi Osaka are planning to. Chambers should inspire them all.
But perspective is also required. No mother has won Wimbledon since Evonne Goolagong Cawley, who defeated Chris Evert in the 1980 singles final. For Cawley, the first winning mum since 1914, it was her first title at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club since 1971, when she trounced fellow Australian Margaret Court. She later recalled that after the ’71 final, “Margaret didn’t exactly fall all over me with praise.”
There was a good reason for that. Court, who had dominated Cawley in their recent matches, played the ’71 final wondering what was wrong. Her timing was off and she felt tired and nauseous. Watching on TV back in Australia, her mother wondered if she was pregnant. Mum was right. After having the pregnancy confirmed, Court joked to her husband, Barry: “Our baby has been on centre court at Wimbledon and hasn’t even been born yet.”
Dorothea Lambert Chambers contested 11 Wimbledon finals between 1903 and 1920, winning four after having babies.Credit: Getty Images
Baby Daniel, born in March 1972, joined Court on the tennis circuit. She was a pioneer: the first mum with a baby on tour. Having fallen out with American Billie Jean King, who was pushing for equal pay and had been dismayed by the Australian’s assertion that “I don’t think women should be paid the same as men; we aren’t equal”, Court did her bit for activism by proving that motherhood need not be an impediment to a career.
Six months after Daniel’s birth, she made the US Open semi-finals. The tournament program called her “Big Mama”. The following year, 1973, she won the Australian, French and US Open. Other players entertained Daniel; officials were welcoming. The only problem she had, ironically, was in Australia where “an over-zealous female official refused to let me bring Danny, who was nine months old, into the rooms. To say I was irate was an understatement.” Reporters sniffed out the story. The baby ban was lifted.
Margaret Court with husband Barry and son Daniel in 1973.Credit: Getty Images
Cawley, meanwhile, won a hat-trick of Australian Opens between 1974 and 1976, the year she lost to Evert in the US Open final. Later she discovered that, like Court in their ’71 Wimbledon final, she was pregnant. But it didn’t slow her down. She had to be told to go easy with training while pregnant. Two months after giving birth in May 1977, she was back on the practice court; in December she won another Australian Open, her last major title until Wimbledon 1980.
Chambers, Court and Cawley now stand as pioneering women players. Belgian Kim Clijsters joined their club by having her first baby in 2008 and subsequently winning three major titles. The imperious Serena Williams never matched their feats. Her last major singles title was the 2017 Australian Open: she defeated big sister Venus in the final while eight weeks pregnant. But after becoming a mum in September 2017, she lost four major finals during 2018 and 2019 while trying to match Court’s record of 24 singles titles.
Kim Clijsters poses with her daughter Jada after winning the US Open in 2010.Credit: Getty Images
Two of her conquerors in those grand slam showdowns, Germany’s Angelique Kerber and Japan’s Naomi Osaka, are now set on making comebacks as mothers. They could get some tips from Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, who advanced to the 2023 Wimbledon semi-finals nine months after having a daughter, Skai, and Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, who had a son in 2016 and reached the US Open final in 2020 (losing to Osaka).
Azarenka, who won Australian Open titles in 2012 and ’13, was once asked in Melbourne whether having son Leo with her was a distraction or relaxing. Her reply: “All of the above.” Margaret Court insisted: “In a crowd of thousands I could hear a baby holler and know if it was Danny.” They have both described themselves as working mums. For Azarenka, “Balancing child-care and a career is not easy for any parent, but it is a challenge I am willing to face and embrace.”
Victoria Azarenka takes son Leo on the tennis circuit with her.Credit: Getty Images
Some things have got easier: facilities cater for players’ children and the Women’s Tennis Association has modified ranking rules to make it easier for players to return after pregnancy. But it’s never easy. Clijsters warns of the guilt that comes when leaving a sick baby behind in a hotel room to contest a top-level match.
Blokes have it easier, of course. Tennis dads Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal can afford all the nannies they need. Unlike Serena Williams, they didn’t return to a court after serious physical complications during a birth. (In fairness, though, Federer did once injure a knee while helping with baby bath-time.)
In an essay published in American Vogue in September 2022, coinciding with her farewell at the US Open, Serena Williams wrote: “Believe me, I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family. I don’t think it’s fair. If I were a guy, I wouldn’t be writing this because I’d be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labour of expanding our family. Maybe I’d be more of a Tom Brady [a veteran American footballer] if I had that opportunity … But I’m turning 41 this month, and something’s got to give.”
Serena Williams (right) was pregnant when she defeated sister Venus (left) in the 2017 Australian Open final.Credit: Getty Images
Some players have taken tennis skills into the labour room. Caroline Wozniacki, Australian Open champion in 2018 and mother of two children born in 2021 and ’22, has said: “I have a very high pain tolerance. I’ve won a tournament with broken toes, I have played with a lot of injuries. I’ve gone through a lot with my body and I’ve pushed myself to the brink. And so, I went into the birth thinking, ‘Let’s see what happens, let’s see how much pain I can tolerate.’ ”
But motherhood gives players perspective. A year after having her first baby, Clijsters said: “I am looking at this as a second career, not as a comeback, as I am now in a situation where not everything revolves around tennis 24 hours a day.”
Caroline Wozniacki – with son James – has made a comeback since having children.Credit: @carowozniacki/Instagram
Rebecca Richardson, a Melbourne mother of two teenagers, knows exactly what she means. She never reached Clijsters’ heights, but has been her local tennis club champion many times and played at state and national level. In other words, she’s a lot like most tennis mums.
Richardson says enforced rest during a difficult first pregnancy “totally drove me nuts because I missed the sanity of hitting a tennis ball. I hit against a wall when I can’t hit against people … It’s the rhythm of hitting the ball. Having control of something while I had no control over the baby.”
After giving birth to a boy, Cameron, she was like Cawley when she returned to a court. “I threw myself way too far into it. That’s what friends said to me as well. Why? Because the kid wouldn’t sleep through the night and it was all my fault. I threw myself back into tennis and sport generally. Running. Training. The things I could control: I threw myself into them when Cam actually had a sleep. I worked harder than I did pre-baby.”
Time, she recalls, became more precious as a mum. Top-tier mothers will also experience this. “You have freedom because when you’re playing that’s what you’re focusing on. Before, it seemed like you had all the time you wanted. Afterwards, you cherish any time on the court.”
And there’s perspective. Break-points or dodgy line-calls aren’t as earth-shaking any more, Richardson says. “Plus you get more pleasure out of being on the court because you’re choosing to be on the court. You have a thousand other things to do, but you’re choosing to be on the court.”
Her advice to tennis mums pondering comebacks? (Are you listening, Ash?) “Have the child. And enjoy the whole process of being a parent. Then get back on the court if you want to. You’ve got to want it more than anything. Those women who do must want it – and I admire them.”
As we should all remember and admire Dorothea Lambert Chambers, who ended up contesting 11 Wimbledon singles finals – with, coincidentally, the same win-loss record as Serena Williams. Chambers’ last one was in 1920, when she again lost to Lenglen. At 41, she was the oldest female finalist. Still is. More good news for mums: she died in 1960 at the ripe old age of 81.
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