小威廉姆斯为人母后第一次接近网球冠军

Serena Williams One Step Closer to First Tennis Title as a Mom

This is What’s Trending Today…

Only three mothers have ever won a Grand Slam¹ tennis title in the 50 years of what is known as the “Open era²” of competition. They are Kim Clijsters of Belgium and Australians Evonne Goolagong and Margaret Court.

Serena Williams is looking like she could become the fourth.

The 36-year-old American needed just 62 minutes Monday to reach the quarterfinal round of the Wimbledon tennis tournament.

She defeated Evgeniya Rodina of Russia, who also is a mother.

After her win against Rodina, Williams told reporters, “I knew we were both moms, and I’m not sure how often that happens, if ever. So it’s really cool. You can be a mom, you can still play tennis and you can still be great.”

Williams has won seven Wimbledon singles titles and 23 Grand Slam singles titles overall³. But a win here would be her first title since becoming a mother. She gave birth to her daughter, Alexis Olympia, in September.

Williams returned to Grand Slam competition earlier this year at the French Open, but she withdrew⁴ because of an injury. Coming into Wimbledon, she was not ranked among the top 150 female⁵ players because she missed more than a full season of competition, first while pregnant⁶ and then after giving birth.

However, the All England Club at Wimbledon seeded her 25th, choosing to look at her past successes instead of her recent lack of competitions. Williams said she hopes other women who return to professional tennis after having a child receive the same treatment.

“It will be really nice for these women to take a year off, and have the most amazing thing in the world, then come back to their job and not have to start from the bottom…” Williams said of the decision.

Motherhood is an important part of who Williams is. She speaks openly about her health problems during childbirth, the joys of bringing her daughter with her to competitions and the difficulty of dividing her time between family and sport.

Over the weekend, she wrote on Twitter that she missed seeing her 10-month-old daughter walk for the first time.

“She took her first steps,” Williams wrote. “I was training and missed it. I cried.”

The tweet – and the discussion⁷ it started – went viral. People around the world answered her with supportive messages.

Twitter user⁸ David Jones wrote, “When your daughter is a little older she’ll know her mother is 1) the greatest tennis player of all time and 2) the woman who helped others return to the game after childbirth with a protected ranking and a career they don’t have to abandon. I hope you win it for her next Saturday.”

Williams must win two more matches to make it to the Wimbledon final on Saturday. She next faces Camila Giorgi of Italy. The two play Tuesday at 13:15 UTC.

And that’s What’s Trending Today.

I’m Ashley Thompson.

Words in This Story

Grand Slam - n. the four most important yearly⁹ tennis events (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open)

title - n. the status or position of being the champion in a sport or other competition

era - n. a period of time that is associated with a particular quality, event, person, etc.

tournament - n. a sports competition or series of contests that involves many players or teams and that usually continues for at least several days

rank - v. to place (someone or something) in a particular position among a group of people or things that are being judged according to quality, ability, size, etc.

seeded - adj. player or team that is ranked as one of the best in a competition (such as a tennis tournament) in order to be sure that the best players or teams do not play against each other in the early part of the competition

abandon - v. to stop doing or having (something) : to give up (something) completely

1 slam   

v.猛力地推、放或扔；砰地关上

参考例句：

• They were surprised by the slam of a car door.关汽车门时发出的声音使他们很吃惊。
• Why should you slam the window?你干吗要使劲关窗户呢？

2 era   

n.时代，年代，纪元，阶段

参考例句：

• We are living in the information era.我们生活在信息时代。
• We are living in a great historic era.我们正处在一个伟大的历史时代。

3 overall   

n.工作服，工装裤；全面的，全体的

参考例句：

• The shop assistant was wearing a white overall.那店员穿着白色的工作服。
• How much will it cost overall?一共多少钱？

4 withdrew   

v.取[收]回( withdraw的过去式 )；（使）撤退[出]；提；收回

参考例句：

• She withdrew to confer with her advisers before announcing a decision. 她先去请教顾问然后再宣布决定。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She quickly withdrew her hand from the hot iron. 她很快地将手从火烫的熨斗上缩了回来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 female   

adj.雌的，女(性)的；n.雌性的动物，女子

参考例句：

• We only employ female workers.我们只雇用女工。
• The animal in the picture was a female elephant.照片上的动物是头母象。

6 pregnant   

adj.怀孕的，怀胎的

参考例句：

• She is a pregnant woman.她是一名孕妇。
• She is pregnant with her first child.她怀了第一胎。

7 discussion   

n.讨论，谈论；论述

参考例句：

• It is certain he will come to the discussion.他肯定会来参加讨论。
• After months of discussion,a peace agreement is gradually taking shape.经过几个月的商讨，和平协议渐渐有了眉目。

8 user   

n.用户，使用者

参考例句：

• The company is the biggest user of oil.该公司是最大的石油用户。
• The umbrella keeps the rains off the user.雨伞使撑伞人免受雨淋。

9 yearly   

adj.每年的，一年一度的；adv.一年一次地

参考例句：

• The flower show is a yearly event in our town.我们镇上的花展一年举行一次。
• The yearly rental of her house is 2400 yuan.她这房子年租金是2400元。