Caroline Wozniacki has reached the fourth round, Elina Svitolina reached the third, and Taylor Townsend scored a big upset. Here are their stories after giving birth.
Meanwhile, Svitolina, who is from Ukraine and was ranked Number Three in the world in 2017, has also had quite a smashing return to the tour this year. In March 2022, she had started what she had planned to be a temporary break from the tour, after suffering back pain and dealing with all the emotions surrounding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Yeah, it can be quite stressful when much bigger country tries to invade and conquer your much smaller home country.
Svitolina returned to the tour at the Charleston Open in April of this year. Svitolina mentioned that the mental part of returning was actually much more challenging than the physical part. “I was not used to the playing pressure,” she recalled. “The only thing that you can do [to regain that experience] is to play matches. I lost some tough matches that I would in the past have won. Each time, I tried to do better the next match.
Townsend is a little over two years out from giving birth to her son, Adyn Aubrey, on March 14, 2021. As you’ll see , that was a completely new experience for Townsend in many ways. Townsend explained, “Before that I never had injuries and wasn’t used to being dependent on others.” But after undergoing a Caesarean Section , she “struggled to even walk,” in her words. “The C-section had to heal. I had to depend on others and was forced to ask for help.
When Azarenka became pregnant, she expected all along to return to the tour. “It was not a matter of if I was coming back but rather when,” Azarenka said. “I did not know how my body would react. So there were a lot of unknowns. Everyone has different challenges.” She did mention that, “What was surprising was how I active was able to be while pregnant. I was still working out on the gym when 37 weeks pregnant and didn't think that would be possible.