Pregnant gamers on the ladies’s tennis tour now can obtain 12 months of paid maternity go away, and those that grow to be mother and father by way of accomplice being pregnant, surrogacy or adoption can get two months off with pay below a program sponsored by the Public Funding Fund of Saudi Arabia and introduced Thursday by the WTA.
“Unbiased contractors and self-employed people do not usually have these sorts of maternity advantages supplied and out there to them. They should exit and kind of determine these advantages for themselves,” WTA CEO Portia Archer mentioned. “That is actually kind of novel and groundbreaking.”
Greater than 300 gamers are eligible for the fund, which is retroactive to Jan. 1. The WTA wouldn’t disclose how a lot cash is concerned.
This system — which the WTA touted as “the primary time in ladies’s sports activities historical past that complete maternity advantages can be found to unbiased, self-employed athletes” — additionally gives grants for fertility therapies, together with egg freezing and IVF.
Introducing the brand new PIF WTA Maternity Fund 💚
Introducing the brand new PIF WTA Maternity Fund. As a groundbreaking initiative, the PIF WTA Maternity Fund will present eligible WTA gamers with complete maternity advantages and fertility therapies to start out or develop their… pic.twitter.com/T98himxIL4
— wta (@WTA) March 6, 2025
It is a part of a wider pattern: As ladies’s sports activities rise, there’s an emphasis on assembly maternity and parental wants.
What number of moms are on the ladies’s tennis tour now? The WTA says 25 mothers are energetic on tour. Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Belinda Bencic gained a title final month after coming back from maternity go away in October.
Increasingly more professionals in tennis have returned to motion after having kids, together with previous No. 1-ranked gamers and Grand Slam title winners equivalent to Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, Kim Clijsters, Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka.
Azarenka — a member of the WTA Gamers’ Council, which Archer acknowledged performed a key function in pushing for this fund — thinks these advantages will encourage lower-ranked or lower-earning athletes to take as a lot day without work as they really feel they want after changing into a guardian, moderately than worrying about dropping out on earnings whereas not getting into tournaments.
“That is actually one of many goals of this system: to supply the monetary assets, the pliability, the help, in order that these athletes, no matter the place they’re ranked, however significantly those that earn much less, can have that company … to determine when and the way they need to begin their households,” Archer mentioned.
And, Azarenka mentioned, this might lead some gamers to determine to grow to be mother and father earlier than retiring from the game for good.
“Each suggestions we have heard from gamers who’re moms — or who aren’t moms — is like, ‘Wow, that is an unimaginable alternative for us,'” mentioned 2012-13 Australian Open champion Azarenka, whose son, Leo, is eight. “I imagine it is actually going to vary the dialog in sports activities. However going past sports activities, it is a international dialog, and I am completely happy that we’re (a part of it).”
Different steps the WTA has taken lately to profit gamers embody steering extra ladies into teaching, implementing safeguarding, making an attempt to stem cyberbullying, and rising prize cash with the purpose of payouts equal to what males obtain within the sport.
What function does Saudi Arabia have in tennis? The Public Funding Fund, or PIF, grew to become the WTA’s international accomplice final 12 months, after a lot public debate — Corridor of Famers Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova had been among the many critics — over questions on LGBTQ+ and girls’s rights in Saudi Arabia.
The dominion now hosts the season-ending WTA Finals and an ATP occasion for rising stars of males’s tennis. The PIF sponsors the WTA and ATP rankings.
“We would not have been in a position to present the advantages had been it not for this relationship and the funding that PIF gives,” Archer mentioned.
What are maternity go away insurance policies in different sports activities? In golf — which is a person sport with out assured salaries, like tennis — the LPGA launched an up to date maternity go away coverage in 2019 that lets athletes have the identical enjoying standing after they return.
In soccer, each the NWSL and the U.S. ladies’s nationwide crew have collective bargaining agreements that permit for being pregnant go away and parental go away. The NWSL pays the total base wage whereas an athlete is pregnant.
In basketball, the WNBA’s CBA ensures full pay throughout maternity go away.
For tennis, Azarenka mentioned, the PIF WTA Maternity Fund Program is “just the start.”
“It is an unimaginable starting. Monumental change,” she mentioned. “However I believe we are able to look into how we are able to develop this fund for greater, higher issues.”