Maternity match-up - Serena Williams faces Evgeniya Rodina in Wimbledon fourth round

LONDON (AP):

When Serena Williams steps out on Centre Court to play Evgeniya Rodina in Wimbledon's fourth round today, it will be a rare meeting of mom vs mom.

Such match-ups could happen with greater frequency as parenthood becomes increasingly popular on the women's tennis tour.

There were a half adozen mothers in the singles main draw at the All England Club this year: 23-time Grand Slam champion Williams; another former No. 1 and two-time major champ, Victoria Azarenka; Rodina; Kateryna Bondarenko; Tatjana Maria and Vera Zvonareva.

Two more moms entered the doubles event, Mandy Minella and M·ria JosÈ M·rtinez S·nchez. A ninth, Patty Schnyder, lost during qualifying for singles.

"At different points, we've had one or two mothers at a time. And then it's grown to three or four mothers. And now we've seen that we have more, at present, than we've had in the past. There was Margaret Court. Evonne Goolagong. (Kim) Clijsters," said Kathleen Stroia, World Tennis Association senior VP for sport sciences and medicine, naming mothers who have won Grand Slam titles.

"The difference," she said, "is that now, it's certainly something that is becoming common."

Williams is competing in her second major tournament since having a daughter, Olympia, last September. Motherhood is an important part of who she is now.

The 36-year-old American has spoken openly about a health scare during childbirth; about gaining weight while breast-feeding; about the joys of bringing her child onsite to a tournament for the first time; about the difficulty of dividing her time between family and forehands; and about the precedent the All England Club set by seeding her 25th, based on past success that includes seven Wimbledon titles, even though she was ranked outside the top 150 after missing more than a full season, first while pregnant, then after giving birth.

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

Today's match-ups:

Men's singles:

Mackenzie McDonald vs 13 Milos Raonic (6:45 a.m.)

24 Kei Nishikori vs Ernests Gulbis (6:45 a.m.)

1 Roger Federer vs Adrian Mannarino (7 a.m.)

9 John Isner vs 31 Stefanos Tsitsipas (8 a.m.)

Gael Monfils vs 8 Kevin Anderson (8:15 a.m.)

5 Juan Martin del Potro vs Gilles Simon (8:45 a.m.)

Jiri Vesely vs 2 Rafael Nadal (10:15 a.m.)

Karen Khachanov vs 12 Novak Djokovic (10:15 a.m.)

Women's singles:

7 Karolina Pliskova vs 20 Kiki Bertens (5:30 a.m.)

Camila Giorgi vs Ekaterina Makarova (5:30 a.m.)

Hsieh Su-wei vs Dominika Cibulkova (5:30 a.m.)

12 Jelena Ostapenko vs Aliaksandra Sasnovich (5:30 a.m.)

13 Julia Gorges vs Donna Vekic (6:45 a.m.)

Alison van Uytvanck vs 14 Daria Katsatkina (6:45 a.m.)

11 Angelique Kerber vs Belinda Bencic (7 a.m.)

25 Serena Williams vs Evgeniya Rodina (9 a.m.)