Tennis Atlantic

In a tiny interview area in the media center within Arthur Ashe stadium, Yanina Wickmayer met with a Belgian reporter and this tiny blog. She’d advanced to the second round of the US Open in convincing fashion on Tuesday, defeating former US Open finalist Vera Zvonareva. How was she even here? Hadn’t we seen the 33-year-old retire in in the first set of her qualifying final on Friday?

There’s lucky losers and then there’s very lucky losers.

“I got a back spasm in the first game of the match, which never happened to me before,” Wickmayer recalled. “I’ve had back spasms but never in the first game. If you have an injury that you can recover from, then you’re allowed to be a lucky loser and we get tested by the doctors before we get to go back on court and have to prove ourselves through tests to go back on, because there are other girls who want a chance.”

“If I wasn’t 100%, it wouldn’t be fair to take a spot,” she explained. “I waited until my warmup to see if I was really 100% to go out on court, because I didn’t just want to go on court. I wanted to go on court and win my match.”

And win she did over Zvonareva in straight sets. Wickmayer and Zvonareva had a longer-than-usual conversation at the net and continuing over to the umpire chair.

“She’s done great in the past and she’s had some amazing results here,” Wickmayer reflected of the Russian. “I think we have mutual respect. We’ve been on tour for such a long time. We’ve been around for a really long time. It’s just great to see players playing longer and becoming moms still playing for a long time.”

The old sexist trope of declaring someone’s finished when they bear a child is finally dead, and women’s tennis may have put the final nail in the coffin. But each choice is personal and so is the timing, Wickmayer declared.

“I definitely left it open,” she said of her choice. “I told people I was going to have a baby and I would decide if I wanted to come back or if I wanted to retire. And I still felt like I wanted to play. I had the fire inside of me, the ambition and I wanted to face another challenge. Because that’s what it really was to me, and I love challenges. I love to fight hard for whatever I believe in. I didn’t regret it for one moment that I came back, so I’m really happy about that,” she continued.

Did it help to see compatriots like Kim Clijsters blaze that trail?

“Yes, the other moms inspired me because they showed me what was possible,” she replied. “Before the others proved it, it was still a question mark. The more moms on tour, the more we inspire each other to say, ‘Hey we’re not done with playing.’ If you want a family and want to play, you can do both. You can have a career after a baby and enjoy both.”

It appears that she is definitely enjoying both, and she’ll face Madison Keys this afternoon on Arthur Ashe.

–S. Fogleman