Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka and Tsvetana Pironkova made up a ‘Band of Mothers’ who marched into the third round of the US Open on Th...
Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka and Tsvetana Pironkova made up a ‘Band of Mothers’ who marched into the third round of the US Open on Thursday.
Williams, Azarenka and Pironkova were part of a cluster of nine mums who started this week’s women’s singles tournament at Flushing Meadows.
Six of the nine – Kim Clijsters, Vera Zvonareva, Tatjana Maria, Kateryna Bondarenko, Patricia Maria Tig and Olga Govortsova – have been eliminated.
But unranked Bulgarian Pironkova – playing her first tournament in three years after a break to have her first child – prolonged her participation with a 7-5, 6-3 upset of Spanish 10th Garbine Muguruza.
Former world number one Williams also advanced later Thursday with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Russia’s Margarita Gasparyan.
Williams and Pironkova were later joined by Azarenka, another former world number one who beat Belarussian compatriot and fifth seed Aryna Sabalenka 6-1, 6-3.
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Pironkova, who gave birth to her son Alexander in April 2018, says motherhood has given her a new perspective on her tennis career.
“Your priorities have nothing to do with what they did before,” she said Thursday.
“Nothing is the same really. Right now I’m just happy to be playing. Having the...
