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Victoria Azarenka has opened up about how motherhood has impacted her tennis career. Adding onto that, the former World No. 1 revealed that she has mixed feelings about her son wanting to come to her matches.
The Belarusian continued her impressive run at Wimbledon as she advanced to the third round of the tournament after beating Russian Daria Kasatkina 6-2, 6-4. The 33-year-old beat the Russian for the fourth time in her career and qualified for the fourth round for the first time since 2017.
In 2017, the Belarusian beat three much higher-ranked players to reach the fourth round of the Grand Slam. Up against the then-World No. 2 Simona Halep, Azarenka was knocked out by the Romanian.
Speaking to the media in the post-match press conference, Azarenka was asked how she manages tennis along with motherhood. The 33-year-old replied by saying that, not that her son, Leo, is old enough to go to school, she has some free time to train every day.
"Well, it has changed quite a bit throughout the years. My son is six-and-a-half years old now, and he started school, so I have a little bit of free time once I drop him off to school during the day," Azarenka said.
The former World No. 1 further added that the biggest challenge she faces is the guilt of keeping time for herself to train, given that she does not want to miss out on her child growing up.
"But for me the biggest challenge, I would say, was an emotional attachment is kind of carrying that guilt of having time for myself and plan my day to be sometimes a little bit selfish. I had a feeling that I don't want to miss out on really anything when he's growing up," she added.
Victoria Azarenka also revealed that she has mixed feelings about Leo wanting to come to her matches as she gets 'distracted.'
She touched upon her time at the Libema Open when Leo was in the stands, and despite it being an awesome moment, she intended to get into "mom mode."
"So now my son wants to come to my matches (smiling). It's still a bit of a hard feeling for me, because I get a bit distracted. I have tried that in 's-Hertogenbosch, and it was very awesome moment to share, but at the same time it kind of takes me a bit, you know, into my mom mode too much rather than being a tennis player," Victoria Azarenka added.
Wimbledon 2023: Victoria Azarenka will take on either Elina Svitolina or Sofia Kenin
Victoria Azarenka will lock horns with either Elina Svitolina or Sofia Kenin in the fourth round of the 2023 Wimbledon Championships.
The Belarusian was asked about her feelings about potentially facing Svitolina, another mother, in her next round. Talking about her, Azarenka said she was happy for her for becoming a mother and also for returning to tennis so quickly.
"Well, I'm very happy for her that, you know, she had this incredible experience of going through this incredible experience of having a family and the ability to come back actually very quickly on tour," Victoria Azarenka stated.
At the beginning of the year, the two-time Australian Open winner had an impressive outing at the Melbourne Major.
She reached the semifinals of the Major having beaten the likes of Sofia Kenin, Madison Keys, and Jessica Pegula. The former World No. 1 lost to Elena Rybakina in the semifinals of the tournament.
