Interviews Tennis : Welcome Back Cara Black

There’s been a quiet comeback story brewing at the ASB Classic and that’s the return to action of Cara Black, one of the most decorated doubles players in WTA history – five Grand Slams, 49 more WTA titles and 163 weeks at No.1, the third-most all-time.

She was off the tour for more than a year and now, in her first WTA event back in Auckland, she has already made it through to a final alongside Anastasia Radionova. So what has she been up to? Here she is…
On not playing any tournaments between July 2011 and October 2012…
“Well, I really wanted to have a baby, so it was just time to wind down and go that way. We’d been trying for a little while. I still played Winbledon in 2010 – I thought, ‘I’m here, I may as well play.’ But then soon after that I fell pregnant, so yeah, that’s what I’ve been up to during all this time!
“His name is Lachlan Alexander Stephens and he was born April 26, 2012.”


On what motivated her to come back and play…
“I’d actually never really had a break from the game before – fortunately I was injury-free in my whole career, so I played full schedules, year in, year out. So when I left the tour I was sort of mentally fried from all the years of travelling and things. Then the time away refreshed me a lot, and having a child changed my whole perspective a lot. I had time on my hands so I started going out and hitting again, and it felt good, so I thought I’d give it a bash again, nothing to lose, have a bit of fun, really!”


On her plans for the 2013 season…
“We’re just going to start out with a few tournaments. Even though I’ve been to a few tournaments already, the whole season is a totally different thing. So we’ll give it a go, one tournament at a time. Right now I’m just looking forward to the Australian Open, which is the main goal, and then we’ll see.”


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