In the world of tennis, past and present champions have achieved important results and shown the way forward. Now, the number of athletes ready to return to the court and express the best level after becoming mothers, is increasing more and more.
From Margaret Smith Court and Evonne Goolagong to Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka and Kim Clijsters. Flavia Pennetta, who decided to retire after winning the US Open in 2015, focused precisely on this topic in an exclusive interview with the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero.
Flavia Pennetta: “I thought of a come back, to earn more money”
The former US Open winner explained: “It takes exceptional strength and total commitment to get back into the game by going back to training in a certain way.
Not just to keep fit like I do but to be competitive on a professional level. Whoever succeeds is truly admirable, because she still has her thoughts tied to the family and, as a mother, she still has to carry out many tasks all of her own.
The reasons for returning to the field can come from the boredom of staying at home, from the need to try the adrenaline of the match again and, I think, mainly from the need or in any case from the desire to earn more money.
I’d be lying if I said it’s never crossed my mind. But I love my family. I could have come back just for the economic question because as a career I feel more than complete, and I wouldn’t have found other certain and so important goals, even if you can always improve and aspire to something more.
I am aware that I could have still earned a lot of money: the economic boost could have motivated me. But evidently it was not enough.” During the first phase of the Covid-19 pandemic, Fabio Fognini, husband of Flavia, had expressed the desire to see his wife back on the court.
A wish that she will not be able to fulfill, as Pennetta herself has reiterated several times. The Italian tennis player, for his part, will try to play the ATP 250 tournament in Buenos Aires next week after the foot problems that affected his start to the season.
