Many have been the years of demands and struggle of the tennis players to combine the sports career with motherhood. Many have had to wait for retirement to be mothers. Others have tried as they have been able to maintain both paths. But always with difficulties and few aid. So far, that the Tennis Association (WTA) He has reached an agreement with the Saudi Arabia Investment Fund (PIF) for which they can provide a payment of up to twelve months to tennis players who decide to be mothers. An aid that will reach 320 tennis players.
«Autonomous workers and self -employed workers do not usually have this type of maternity benefits available. They have to look for themselves the benefits they need. This is something really novel and revolutionary, ”said Portia Archer, executive director of the WTA.
It is another step towards conciliation that has already begun gradually since 2018. In that year it was established that tennis players could be absent for motherhood and return to the competition with protected ranking, with a weighted average of their points before pregnancy and with the possibility of playing twelve tournaments over three years with that position. Although, they are not allowed to be standard heads and ends once the twelve tournaments have been completed. Same requirements and demands as for an injury.
The next step, which arrives in this 2025, is visible to Victoria, who could not enjoy this aid when she was a mother in 2016. The Belarusian was out of the circuit for more than a year and her score disappeared, so she went from the top five to have to start from scratch. An adventure too hard for anyone, and that led the 21 titles champion, Olympic bronze in London 2012 and winner of the Australian Open in 2012 and 2013, to never recover their status, since it reached the first one hundred positions one year after returning to the circuit.
He did return to Top Ten Serena Williams, although a year and a half after giving birth to her daughter Olympia, who was pregnant when she won the Australian Open of 2017. Elina Svitol Ashleight Barty.
The return is always complicated, and they know it well Naomi Osaka, Tatjana Maria and Belinda Bencic. Only Margaret Court, in Australia, Roland Garros and Us Open in 1973, Evonne Golagong, in Wimbledon 1980, and Kim Clijsters, in the US Open in 2009 and 2010 and in the Australian Open in 2011, they could be champions of a Grand Slam after motherhood.
«I am very proud to be able to present this program. It marks the beginning of an important change in how we support women in tennis, making it easier for athletes to follow their careers and family aspirations. Getting this was a personal mission for me, ”said the Belarusian in the presentation of the initiative. An initiative that is marked by the controversy, since it arrives sponsored by the money of Saudi Arabia, one of the largest sponsors of the women’s circuit, and that is also the main support of the Cup of Teachers, which is celebrated in Riyadh. Voices such as those of Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert have always positioned themselves against the aid received by this country since, as they point out, it restricts the freedom of women and does not respect LGTB rights, which they consider a step back for the progress of society.
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