Elina Svitolina, Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka lead pack of 10 mothers competing at US Open 2023
Elina Svitolina, Caroline Wozniacki, and Victoria Azarenka are among a total of ten mothers who will be in action at the US Open 2023. This season's edition of the New York Major will see quite a few women who have already given birth compete.
Elina Svitolina and her husband Gael Monfils welcomed their daughter Skai last October, and she returned to action during this season's clay-court season. Svitolina won the Strasbourg Open before reaching the quarterfinals of the French Open and, later, the Wimbledon semifinals. These results saw her rise to 26th in the WTA rankings.
Caroline Wozniacki will also be in action at the US Open. The Dane, who was the runner-up twice at the New York Major, initially retired from tennis after the 2020 Australian Open. Since then, she has given birth twice before returning to action in August 2023.
Three-time US Open runner-up Victoria Azarenka is the highest-ranked mother in the women's singles event. Yanina Wickmayer is the fourth player in the Top 100 of the WTA rankings who will compete in Flushing Meadows and has also given birth.
Former doubles world No. 1 Barbora Strycova is another mother who will be participating at the US Open. The Czech's return has been a pretty good one so far, as she won the women's doubles title at Wimbledon with Hsieh Su-wei.
Taylor Townsend gave birth to her son, Adyn Aubrey, in 2021 and returned to the WTA Tour in 2022. She has since reached two Grand Slam doubles finals at last year's US Open and this season's French Open.
Other tennis mothers who will be competing at the New York Major are former World No. 2 Vera Zvonareva, Wimbledon 2022 semifinalist Tatjana Maria, Patricia Maria Tig, and Margarita Betova.
Elina Svitolina will face Anna-Lena Friedsam in the first round of the US Open
Elina Svitolina is seeded 26th at the upcoming Grand Slam and will face Anna-Lena Friedsam in the first round. It will be the first meeting between the two, and whoever wins out of them will take on either Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova or Fiona Crawley in the second round.
The Ukrainian has had a 19-11 win-loss record so far in 2023, winning the Internationaux de Strasbourg.
Victoria Azarenka will take on Fiona Ferro in the opening round, and victory for her will set up a second-round clash against either Mayar Sherif or Lin Zhu.
Caroline Wozniacki will square off against Tatjana Prozorova and will face either 11th seed Petra Kvitova or Cristina Bucsa if she comes out on top.