As Petra Kvitova readies for return, how have new mothers fared on WTA Tour after hiatus?
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Sometimes a masterstroke, other times players stay retired after they give birth from the WTA Tour and Petra Kvitova is perhaps the latest alongside Belinda Bencic to return with 2024 in particular seeing a slew of returnees. Some fare better than others though.
Belinda Bencic
Current Ranking - World No.157
The ranking doesn't tell the full story when it comes to Belinda Bencic who perhaps has been the most recent success story after returning from pregnancy.
Albeit Bencic benefited perhaps from a lesser status in her return. Others who are ex major champions get offered wildcards for huge events see Angelique Kerber, Caroline Wozniacki and Naomi Osaka.
Bencic is still a huge name but not one that commands an Australian Open wildcard for instance. This allowed her to grind away at smaller events and gain a head of steam that she wouldn't have had she just been thrust back into the tennis spotlight.
Ironically winning a match on the day this article is written against Rebecca Sramkova, she pushed Coco Gauff in the fourth round of the Australian Open and is continuing to make a statement. So far a hit over a flop.
Angelique Kerber
Current Ranking - NR (Retired)
Perhaps an example ala Kim Clijsters where it didn't go right was Angelique Kerber who is now retired from the sport.
Her return to the sport was very short lived. She won the United Cup last January and had some short bursts including losing to Caroline Wozniacki in the fourth round of Indian Wells but also a number of false starts including not playing for the majority of the spring.
But she unlike others who would play on saw that her comeback wasn't gaining any muster and decided to end her career instead of carrying on. She lost at Wimbledon and then announced her retirement at the Olympic Games. She reached the Quarter-Final and gave it all she got against Zheng Qinwen.
So while her comeback was a flop in that it was short lived, she got the ending she wanted and given she is 37 now, perhaps it wouldn't have gone on for too long anyway.
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Elina Svitolina
Current Ranking - 23
Svitolina follows the Belinda Bencic school of thought with the Ukrainian not able really to take the wildcards and in her case she didn't want to.
She grinded in tournaments in Europe early on and didn't show any signs of a return to form. Until she won Strasbourg and this started a comeback of the year run.
She reached the Quarter-Finals of the French Open as well as the semi-finals at Wimbledon and also the Australian Open Quarter-Final in 2024.
Only injury curtailed her season and she again reached the Quarter-Finals of the Australian Open last month. Very much the blueprint for a return to the tour after becoming.a mother, Svitolina if anything has become more consistent and less predictable in her game style since returning to the tour.
Naomi Osaka
Current Ranking - 42
Osaka on the other hand has been a bit of a frustrating one thus far. She has shown signs of getting back to her best albeit not the major winning, all conquering World No.1.
But she wasn't when she left the sport in 2022 to become a mother. It has given her a new perspective on the sport now though and that counts for something. Once a player who didn't want to talk to the press, Osaka wanted more than anything to be a role model for her daughter.
She has shown signs like the Iga Swiatek French Open match, Coco Gauff at the China Open and her Auckland final run. She now has Patrick Mouratoglou as her coach so is trending in an upward direction.
But injury has been an issue. Whenever she seems to get into the position to be back at her best, she is blighted by something and that happened in most of those games. This year is vital with Osaka wanting to be back to her best in the summer of last year. That didn't happen.
But she has also shown appetite to play smaller tournaments and despite being one of the most successful on this list, she hasn't used her status to fully get into everything and is willing to do what is needed. When it clicks, the rise will be great. But it hasn't yet.
Victoria Azarenka
Current Ranking - 30
Azarenka is perhaps an opposite example. She slumped when she returned to the tour but rose again to have some of her best form outside of her major wins in the years that followed.
It took her three years to get back to her best as she took in a revival during the US summer reaching the final of the US Open and winning the Cincinnati Open.
She reached the top 20 and has maintained steady form since including the semi-finals of the Australian Open and the fourth round in Melbourne last year.
As Leo continues to grow up, he joins his mother on tour at times but it has perhaps also given her a new lease of life on the tennis court and she shows no signs of letting up.
Caroline Wozniacki
Current Ranking - 84
After becoming a mother for the first time, she returned to tennis suddenly so it wasn't always in the plans. But she has had an up and down time of it during 2023 and 2024.
She reached a WTA 1000 Quarter-Final but also missed massive chunks of both seasons and has yet to play in 2025. This has led to many thinking she won't return to the sport.
She has dismissed those claims. But she has decided to complain about not getting wildcards more than playing at times and has not been able to reclaim her spot at the top.
So this year is make or break. Petra Kvitova will follow either a Svitolina or Kerber or Wozniacki where she will either hit the ground running or she will flounder to deceive.
Time will tell as she plays at the ATX Open Austin at the end of the month followed by Indian Wells and Miami.
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mandoist04-02-2025 - It sounds seriously absurd that in Davis Cup, (unlike Grand Slams such as the Aus Open), medical time outs off court with the medical staff are not allowed?? I mean, if this was an Aus Open match, and the same thing happened to Gurin then, he would have been able to go off court for official medical time out and make an informed decision whether to resume the match or retire. How come such conditions do not apply in Davis Cup?? I mean, there with Davis Cup, it is even more like a soccer match or basketball game in that teams are playing. And so as with those, it ought to be the case in tennis that if a player needs serious medical time out, then one of the other team mates ought to substitute and each team needs to have stand-ins or understudies in case substitution is needed which will be rare but as we can see here, this kind of circumstance fits. But even if the teams do not go down the road of subbing other team mates in, in case of a health issue like the one which played out here, at least, as in the Aus Open and other Grand Slams, there ought to be time-outs with the health professionals and at the conclusion of these time-outs, the particular decision that has been reached between them and the player needs to be taken on board by the umpire. PERIOD.
Sueiyin04-02-2025 - "If Novak did this, he would be defaulted for life. WTF." 🤣 WTF sounds like What Tennis Fury?! What Tennis Flurry??! I mean, se-rious-ly, it was actually the unfairness of the silly umpire's decision that is the issue here! Further, how come it was Gurin & his team who got disqualified? If this kind of thing happens in soccer, it would be the other guy getting the yellow or red card! Because after all, it was the Belgian who's foul it was so why then penalize the opponents for something they didn't instigate? Fouls in both basketball and soccer are read as a hinderance that has been caused by the player who INITIALLY instigated the hinderance. In this case, okay, it is tennis, but while the precise rules are different to either soccer or basketball, the same type of recognition as to whoever instigates a hinderance should apply, and in this case, it was the Belgian player.Sueiyin04-02-2025
- Medvedev talking to his form here. "Some actual deep problem." 🤣😂🤣MrAndreeva03-02-2025
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- Ha-ha-ha... Translation: I'll help as long as I don't have to meet in person and endure the ongoing BS"mandoist03-02-2025
- Well said.mandoist03-02-2025
- So tennisuptodate doesn't even make this event a headline on this site? I had to find it hidden here. Not a word about Yastremska trying to ruin Alexandrova's celebration with her postgame actions?? According to WTA regulations, Yastremska has some punishment coming her way for walking-off court, blowing-off postgame rituals with the winner; including no photos, etc.mandoist03-02-2025
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- Typical narcissistic cynicism of Kyrgios! Very rarely has a decent word to say about anything. He's abusive, jeeringly loud and obnoxious. He needs to be officially called out by both the ATP and ITF for using foul language in public spaces such as social media. The guy's a vampiric hoon who sucks the lifeblood out of tennis by trying to bolster popularity of the good-for-nothing bad boy image. I once admired Kyrgios for his previous good-willed willingness to get honest help for his mental health issues but that all went down the drain once he figured he could reel money in through publicity stunts using the negativity of his problems in such a way as to declare them 'no longer problems' but something which he could become more entangled in just to boost an anti-hero image. Shame on him for turning his back on common human decency and good-willed fraternity. Instead he opts to make a 'hero' out of villany. I'm sorry Nick but u are only doing more harm to yourself in the long run by trying to serve up a bad name for the sport you claim to so proudly represent. Get real mate, tennis is not for hoons, neither is hoon-behaviour the hallmark of sporting integrity. It's an utter disgrace!Sueiyin02-02-2025
