Tennis anyone? Oh, not me. I think the sport is as boring to watch and discuss as it is to play. But what I do love is sports talk that centers on motherhood. Obviously. I can't get enough of stories about women who not only continue to compete during and after pregnancy, but especially when the thrive because of it. Sometimes, kids do just the opposite of draining your aspirations. They turn it around an inspire them.
This is what happened to the 31-year-old tennis star Lindsay Davenport. She retired in 2006, pregnant with her son. But the retirement turned into maternity leave when a few weeks before giving birth, she got the strangest pregnancy craving yet: a return to the tennis court. Six weeks post-partum, she was playing in a doubles tournament.
Her boy, Jagger, is 7 months old now, and mom is making the rounds in the big tournaments. Serena Williams, for one, is in awe.
"I mean, I'm speechless because she looks better than me and she's
seven months out of having a baby," Serena Williams said here at a
pre-tournament news conference. "I'm convinced if I had a baby, seven
months later I'd probably still be in the hospital trying to get over
the pain."
Oh, Serena, it's not THAT painful. But the comeback is still pretty cool.
Having a kid has forced her to be selective and make difficult choices -- a refrain lots of mothers know. Baby Jagger's presence has changed her in more than one way. He helps to keep her temper in check -- or at least forces her to creatively manage it.
No matter what, win or lose, the presence of Jagger has changed
everything for Davenport. She lost to Jankovic in Beijing and afterward
told her nanny, who was with Jagger, that she needed a minute alone.
"I
hit my racket on the ground, took a deep breath, and I thought, 'OK,'
and we were all good again," Davenport said. "It took about hours less
than it used to, to get the anger out. I didn't want him to see me do
it.
"I was like, 'Would you mind walking outside for one
second with him?' She did. [I] broke a racket. They came back in and it
was fine."
With a mom on the court, I'm almost tempted to follow tennis. I mean, I won't, but I am tempted.
