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| Sybille Bammer (right) with 5-year-old daughter Tina (left). |
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Don’t look now, but “tennis-playing mother” may be becoming less of an oxymoron on the pro circuit again. It’s still hard to imagine a return of the days when Evonne Goolagong and Margaret Court could win Grand Slams after becoming moms, but players are once more showing that it’s possible to carve out a solid career even as the tour gets increasingly physical.
Sybille Bammer is the standout in this category, having become the most accomplished playing mother since Goolagong won Wimbledon in 1980. With 5-year-old daughter Tina and Tina’s father – an engineer who gave up his job to support Bammer – in tow, Bammer hit a career-high ranking of 23 a week ago.
She began the year by defeating Serena Williams in Hobart – at a time when no one realized that meant anything - and followed up by winning her first title at Pattaya City and reaching the semifinals of Indian Wells and Amelia Island.
The most striking element of Bammer’s second career is how much better it is than her first. Before having a child, she was a mid-200s player. Now, at 27, she’s on the verge of the Top 20. “The baby break was really good for me,” she said earlier this year. “And then I start again and I said, ‘Okay. It's my last chance and I really want to try and give my best.’”
And she's not only player making use of the daycare center here at Roland Garros. Rossana de los Rios, who has a 10-year-old daughter named Ana, played her first Grand Slam event in almost four years after making it through the qualifying.
“I am happy that she won, that the kids can play together,” said Bammer, who has known de los Rios for several years. “Tina and Ana, they are friends already. They know [each other] already for a couple of years.”
De los Rios originally retired in 1994 to marry husband Gustavo Neffe and gave birth to Ana in 1997. In 1999, she decided to return to the tour and reached the fourth round at Roland Garros in 2000.
After struggling with knee and wrist problems for most of 2005 and 2006, the 31-year-old is now healthy again and has cut her ranking to 199 from 452 just over a year ago. Her goal is to crack the Top 100 again this year.
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| Rossana de los Rios (left) with 10-year-old daughter Ana Neffa (right). |
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She’s also keeping an eye on her daughter's budding tennis career. “We live in Miami, and she is practicing there a lot,” said de los Rios. “She likes very much to play tennis and she wants to be a professional also.”
It’s too early to judge Ana’s prospects, but if she does play professionally, she may represent the US rather than her mother’s native Paraguay.
Though touring pros have often expressed a reluctance to see their children follow in their footsteps, de los Rios is enthusiastic – “If she wants, I love to her to play.
“I didn’t ever say, ‘Ana, go and play’... She pick up a racquet and go on court and was practicing there.
“It’s so strange because when [people] in this sport have a child, it’s difficult because they know how is the life, and the life is very tough, like go in the airplane. But she like it.”
And clearly, she's already figured out exactly how things work on the circuit. When her favorite player, Serena Williams, once asked her if she wanted to be just like her mother, Ana said no – she wanted to be just like Serena, because Serena wins everything.
Still, mom does have some pull, like arranging a hitting session for her daughter with good friend Svetlana Kuznetsova.
De los Rios has experienced few problems travelling with a child. “It’s not like so tough because she is 10 years and she know everything. I’m focused on my tennis,” she said. “She start to travel when she was three years, I was very okay,”
Bammer finds things much easier now that she’s travelling with a 5-year-old rather than a toddler.
Both players have their husband/boyfriend, daughter and coach with them at most events, though Bammer plans to travel alone more once Tina begins school later this year. Both also say that the dads taking on much of the childcare responsibility is key to their being able to carry on playing.
One child is one thing. What about two?
Lindsay Lee-Waters resumed her playing career this year after having her second child and is trying to become the most accomplished playing mother of two since Court reached the Wimbledon semifinals in 1975.
The 29-year-old, currently ranked 425 but as high as 33 in 1996, is travelling with her husband-coach and their two kids, Sevyn, 6, and Heath, 1.
De lo Rios and Bammer have both noticed, with some amazement.
“I see her in a tournament before and she is doing good,” said de los Rios. “One is really hard, but two is impossible.”
Can she ever see herself doing the same? “No two, no two," she pleaded. "Just one is okay.”
Can Bammer? “No, I will not. If a second baby is coming I will retire,” Bammer laughed. “It’s amazing that she makes a comeback again... Two kids is a lot more than only one!”
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