After giving birth to her first child Olympia in 2017, Williams returned to the tour in 2018, and—after a few years—ended up getting back as high as No. 7 in the world in 2021.
Though she did win one title, in Auckland in 2020, the 23-time Grand Slam champion’s biggest results in her return were four Grand Slam finals, at Wimbledon and the US Open in back-to-back years in 2018 and 2019, plus two more major semifinals at the 2020 US Open and 2021 Australian Open.
She then evolved away from the game in 2022.
Williams and Svitolina are actually tied for highest-ranked mom on the WTA singles rankings since arguably the most successful mom of all time in tennis, Kim Clijsters.
After giving birth to her first child in 2008, Clijsters returned to the tour in 2009 and ended up winning three more Grand Slam titles—at the 2009 US Open, 2010 US Open and 2011 Australian Open. Just a few weeks after that run to the title in Melbourne—the week of February 14th, 2011—she rose to No. 1, the first mom to reach the top spot in WTA rankings history.
