Tennis and Parenthood: Perfect Together?

It's that time of year again, and I'm still recovering from the U.S. Open Player's Party. Friday night, I walked the red carpet (thank you, Lauren Ezersky for taking notice) and enjoyed one great evening with today's stars of the ATP and Sony Ericsson WTA Tours. I especially wanted to thank James Blake for being a very gracious host and for spending some time with us. Good luck, James, we are rooting for you!

Day one of the 2009 U.S. Open is in the books. No great upsets, and some pretty good matches. To me, there were only two notable happenings. First, American hopeful Donald Young once again failed to live up to his potential, or at least noted potential, losing pretty easily to tour veteran Tommy Robredo. Young has been hailed as the next rising U.S. superstar, but has yet to come close to showing he is worthy of the title. Guess we will have to wait until 2010.

The other of note is the return of 2005 women's champion Kim Clijsters. Having taken a couple of years off to get married and start a family, Kim is back on tour and her opening match was impressive. Her straight set win looked very easy. Very good for a champion who has not played at this level for quite a while. Her second round match, however, will be her first real test and could very well be the match that ends her U.S. Open comeback.

Marion Bartoli will be her opponent, after Bartoli advanced in very, very easy straight sets. Seeded 14th, Bartoli has become one of the toughest players on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour and is a challenger for any title she plays. Interestingly, Clijsters defeated Bartoli recently in their meeting in Cincinnati just two weeks ago. While previous performance does not guarantee future results, it does say that the second round match should be one of the best of the tournament.

The return of Kim Clijsters to high level, professional tennis after having a child is not unheard of, and her return has been in keeping with her recent contemporaries. Lindsay Davenport returned in 2007 after an 11-month hiatus to give birth to son, Jagger, and while never quite able to reach the upper echelons, she did win several tournaments and defeated top-10 players in the process.

The trend for female tennis players to return to the pro tour after starting a family is becoming more and more prevalent. Sybille Bammer also started a family and returned to the women's tour in 2007 to take a tournament title. While the competition in today's game is fierce, the top women seem to be able to return to great form. It is interesting that the very top women have always seemed to be able to regain their best games and dominate even with the added workload of being a full-time mom.

Margaret Court is probably the most notable of the working tennis moms. In her return year of 1973, she managed to take the Australian, French, and U.S. Open titles. She holds the record for most major tournament titles with 62 (Martina Navratilova is second with 56) and has the most grand-slam singles titles with 24. She finished her comeback year as number one in the world.

Evonne Goolagong Cawley, another Australian player and mom, won her only Wimbledon singles title after her return from having her first child in 1980. Goolagong never returned to the very top of the rankings, but showed that motherhood and top tier tennis do mix. Watching Kim play reminds me a lot of the 1980 matches played by Cawley. Even though it has only been one match, she looks as poised as ever.

But before I get too giddy over my newest Jersey Shore neighbor, a quick look at the draw puts Kim smack dab against Venus Williams in the fourth round, and if she survives, that would have her run into Venus' sister Serena in the semis. Clearly, if Kim can win both those matches, she deserves to win. I'll hope she does well, but if she can just make it to the fourth round against Venus, it will have been a great tournament for her first slam since coming back.

Having children also seems to be a theme. Mirka and Roger Federer are now parents of beautiful twin girls. While motherhood seems to propel women on the professional tour, will it bring Roger his sixth consecutive U.S. Open title, tying him with all-time great William Tatem Tilden for the most consecutive U.S. Championships? Now that will be interesting. And if it's true, maybe Steffi Graf, Andre Agassi, and Pete Sampras should think about a comeback...