Victoria Azarenka, who sailed into the third round of Wimbledon on Wednesday, said that she will work on improving the conditions of mothers on tour and has been discussing about the same with the Women's Tennis Association (WTA).
Speaking to the media after her win over Elena Vesnina, Azarenka said: “I have been already talking about this point to some of the people in WTA. From my own power, I'll do anything to make that happen, because I think it's really important. The guys do have that luxury of having the nurseries and stuff at every event and I think it's time for women to have the same benefit.”
Azarenka revealed that she is in touch with Serena Williams who is expecting her first child. “Yeah, I have talked to Serena. I do talk to her — not every day, but we do talk once in a while. And we have for my whole career. I have talked to Kim (Clijsters), actually. She was coming with Yanina after my practice court and it was just fun to chat and, you know, we both agreed it's the best thing that can happen to you in the world. It wasn't a long conversation, but it's nice to see that, you know, some of my colleagues who have children and we have just much more in common than just tennis.
The two-time Australian Open champion confessed that travelling with son Leo on tour has been one of the biggest challenges.
“Travelling just, you know, it's a little stressful for me, travelling with a baby. I want to make sure that everything is okay. But overall, it's just great. It's really fun that I'm able to, you know, go home and spend time with my son.”
Azarenka also spoke about Mandy Minella, who revealed after her the first round match that she was four-and-a-half months pregnant. When asked whether she saw herself playing at that stage of pregnancy, Azarenka said: “I can imagine playing pregnant, yes, I can tell you that. I found out about her wonderful news actually in Mallorca and we had a great conversation in the locker room. I'm very happy for her. But, you know, she's doing it, and she obviously feels good. Until the doctor says, Hey, cut it, you know, quit, yeah, I mean, it's wonderful. I think it's wonderful.”
Azarenka agreed with Radwanska’s comment that women are mentally tougher and didn't quit so often as the men. “Oh, my God. I'll get myself in trouble for this one (smiling). I mean, I think that women are pretty tough. And I do think that we don't get enough credit sometimes, and we always have to, you know, fight that battle that guys are physically, you know, more powerful and whatever and they deserve more or less. So I just want to give a shoutout to all the women that we are tough. Leave it at that.”
Azarenka said that motherhood changed the way she looked at things.
“Well, I mean, it changed me completely in so many ways. I started to look at so many things like different in a different way. And especially if someone is not treating any kid in a good way I feel really affected by that. I feel like it's wrong, and I can't even imagine if someone would treat my child in this way. So some news that I read, I feel really sensitive towards that. Obviously I never had that before. Not that I didn't care, but now it's just much bigger feeling to me.”
She added that she would not have a chance to rebuild her serve had it not been for the long break. “I think when the season is 10 months long and you only have two months and you still have to fit in some vacation in that period of time, I don't think it's enough time to really rebuild that and take that time. So I'm glad I actually had that.”
‘Watson cannot be defined by her match against Serena’
Azarenka, who plays Heather Watson next, believes that the Brit is much more than the 2015 third round Wimbledon thriller.
“Well, I don't think Heather is defined by that only match. I think she's a great player. She definitely is going to be a crowd favourite. I think she played really well last week in Eastbourne. It looks like she feels really comfortable coming into this match. To me, it's just another match. I don't want to put any of those aspects into, pay a lot of attention to it. I'm just going to go out there and play my match. I obviously have a lot of respect to every opponent that I play and not take anything for granted.”
Speaking about her win over Vesnina — Azarenka has now played Vesnina eight times and has never lost a set — the Belarusian tennis player said: “I played really good matches against her, and we kind of met in the point where I was playing pretty well, but I don't know. I don't think she's necessarily a most comfortable player just for me. I think she matches my game really well, but I feel like I always play a good match against her for some reason.”
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