Azarenka hopes to find better balance between tennis e son when circuit returns

Former World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka, of Belarus, says she still intends to return to the tour when the tennis circuit resumes and hopes to find a better balance between her professional priorities as a tennis player and her personal priorities as a mother.

Speaking on Tennis Channel, Azarenka says,  "Hopefully, if it doesn't last for 10 years, I'll be able to play. I feel like I can find a little bit of a better balance, that’s something I’ve been working on in terms of my priorities I keep feeling this guilt when I go out and play, because I want to spend time with Leo. At the same time, I still want to play and compete. So I think the key will be to find that balance. It’s a bigger challenge than before, but I feel like I can do it. I wouldn’t be playing if I didn’t think I could still do better than I did before.”

The two-time Australian Open champion says she has noticed the competitive spirit in her son Leo while spending the last one month with him during quarantine. “It's been one month just with him, but his competitive side comes out. I don't really know where it's coming from. He always wants to win everything. It's impossible to play with him if he doesn't win. That's been a little bit of challenge for me, because I like to win as well. And I have to pretend that I'm losing to him all the time. This drives me a little crazy, to be honest.”

The World No. 58 says that playing without fans would reduce the thrill and motivation for her personally as she loves playing in front of crowds and entertaining them. "I think without fans to have that thrill and motivation will be a little bit hard to reproduce, that battlefield. That is really what it's all about. I feel the best competitors that go out there, are entertainers, want to be in front of the crowd, have eyes on us for that moment. For me, it will be a little bit weird. But we also practice so much without anybody looking. So in terms of tennis quality, I don't think that can change much.”

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2W9ZFz2