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Original poster

World's best ever women's tennis player forced to give up work to have children

58 replies

ZeldaFighter · 02/10/2022 11:32

I'm a bit late to the party on this but I've been waiting for someone - anyone - to say it. How come the world's best ever women's tennis player is having to give up so she can have a baby? Why is no one outraged at the lack of work/life balance?

Children have wrecked my career (couldn't take a new job as pregnant and wouldn't have qualified for maternity pay) so this is a bigger issue than just Serena!

OP posts:
Musomama1 · 02/10/2022 11:52

It's not a normal career though is it? Elite sporting professionals have to be realistic about their career length, babies or no.

40 is about the time you'd expect Serena to wind her career down. She won't be happy about it because she is a driven, competitive person but in a few years, she'd have naturally lost a lot more form. Good decision to have more kids now, and she may well come back doing doubles or something else.

sashagabadon · 02/10/2022 11:49

Compared to federer who has four children ( 2 sets of twins) and that has not impacted his ability to keep playing at a top level you do have a point.
Even one child for a female sportswoman has an impact in the way it just doesn’t for a male athlete.
not sure what can be done about it exactly as biology is biology but it is a marked difference between the sexes and should be acknowledged.

tanstaafl · 02/10/2022 11:47

Surely she could have chosen to stop playing earlier in life (and still have more wealth than the vast majority of women on the planet) and tried to started a family then?

I’m struggling to feel any outrage or sympathy tbh.

howdoesatoastermaketoast · 02/10/2022 11:47

You aren't wrong in general but the career of professional tennis players is not the same length as other industries. Late 20s is not unusual, a really good player training hard and well motivated might well make it to their mid 30s. So in translation to 'regular' work and retirement it's like a 68 year old retiring to spend more time with their family; hence little to no outrage.

But yeah for many of us it's pregnant then screwed...

eddiemairswife · 02/10/2022 11:44

At the age of 40 how long do you expect her to be playing top -range tennis? And I doubt she has been forced to give up.

FrankTheThunderbird · 02/10/2022 11:42

Surely she's choosing to give up and have a baby?

Original poster
ZeldaFighter · 02/10/2022 11:41

From what I understand, yes. More than happy to be proved wrong though.

"Further supporting and possibly expanding her family were some of the main reasons behind her decision to leave the game of tennis."

She is 40 and had a really difficult birth with her first child so I read this as giving up to have another baby.

OP posts:
waterlego · 02/10/2022 11:37

I’m confused. Serena Williams is not leaving tennis to have a baby, is she?