Clijsters: "I'm so ready for a new mum to hold a Grand Slam trophy”

"Serena was definitely the one who has come the closest,” Clijsters said.

“There's so many great players out there that are mothers and that have won Grand Slams [before having children], like Osaka, Kvitova, Vika. These are all players who know how to do it.

"I remember when I came back in Cincinnati in 2009, there was a player who came up to me and said: ‘I wish I did what you did, and that I had the guts to do it, because now, [I’m] mid-30s, and I don't have a partner, I've kinda been playing a [whole] career'.

“It really made things sink in for me and realise, 'oh wow, this is an issue for a lot of women'. There's so many women where your clock starts ticking and you feel like you want to start a family, but at the same time you also feel like, 'oh I've been playing tennis for 20 years, or even longer, working to be at this level and to play the Grand Slams’. It's a tough situation to leave to start a family.

"There's not a lot of women, when I'm picking up or dropping off my kids at school, who understand what we have gone through as tennis players. From a young age, being so dedicated, to understand what that life is like, to be leaving home when you're 11-12 years old and travelling to all these different parts of the world, without your parents. It just takes so much discipline and focus.

“[That’s why the WTA-PIF Maternity Fund announcement] has taken our sport, I feel like, to another level for independent women athletes... you [can] lose your sponsors, if you don't play tournaments you don't get paid. And there's a lot of players who don't make enough money or haven't saved enough money, to say, 'oh I would like to start a family because this is what my body and my mind wants to do', and then come back.

“I really feel very excited to see a new player that will use this program.”

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