Svitolina's Success Can Encourage Players To Become Mothers During Career Says Murray

Thursday, 03 August 2023 at 15:05

bySebastian Dahlman

Elina Svitolina is doing amazing things after returning to tennis after giving birth, and Andy Murray thinks it can help other women too.

A fundamental difference between men and women right now is that women give birth, which means that female tennis players, if they want to become mothers, kind of have to pause their careers in order to experience motherhood.

There are various ways players go about it, with some retiring and giving birth, some pausing their careers, and then returning after. Quite a few of them had amazing comebacks to the WTA Tour after becoming mothers, and Elina Svitolina is experiencing that just now.

She recently equalled her best Wimbledon result by making the semi-final which is an amazing achievement. Andy Murray, who competes at the 2023 Citi Open, thinks that more players might opt to become mothers during their "peak" years thanks to this achievement, which most of them generally don't.

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Well, obviously, this might not be the case, but it feels like, to me, that more female players have had children and then come back on to playing in the tour in recent years, which I think is great. I think it's a really positive thing.

There is some belief that a woman's body endures changes during pregnancy which can impact athletic ability in the future, but the likes of Svitolina, Azarenka, and others are proving that it's not true. You can become a mother and play amazing tennis in the future, which might ease the minds of some players juggling the decision to become mothers.

But I'm amazed, like, how well Svitolina, how quickly she's come back and playing at such a good level so soon after having kids is amazing. I think having examples like that, I think, will probably, if the players want to do it, encourage more players to potentially take breaks in their careers.