Chinese great Li Na backed Serena Williams to pull off a quickfire return to tennis after the birth of her first child — but said there was no way she could have rushed back to the sport
Chinese great Li Na backed Serena Williams to pull off a quickfire return to tennis after the birth of her first child — but said there was no way she could have rushed back to the sport. Williams, 36, has spoken of her "outrageous" plans to defend her title at the Australian Open in January, less than five months after giving birth to her baby daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian on September 1.
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Li Na. Pic/Getty Images
Na, who announced she was pregnant two months after retiring in 2014, said she wouldn't have been able to leave her own young daughter, adding that she had probably only hit a tennis ball 10 times since quitting the sport and becoming a mother.
US tennis ace Serena Williams with daughter Olympia
"Serena can fix everything," Na said, referring to the challenge of being a tennis-playing parent. "But if I think about myself, I couldn't do that. With a baby so young, I couldn't leave them." Asked if she missed tennis, the two-time Grand Slam-winner told reporters at the Wuhan Open that she had left that side of herself behind.
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