Victoria Azarenka’s return confirmed: Stanford in July

Early rumours that new mom Victoria Azarenka might try to get back to the WTA Tour in time for Wimbledon were quickly scuttled as a little too ambitious.

The U.S. summer hard-court season was a more likely target as the 27-year-old gets back to serious training this month. That has been confirmed: the Bank of the West Classic announced Sunday that the former No. 1 from Belarus will return at the Premier event in Palo Alto, California, which runs from July 31 to Aug. 6.

The official quote from the tournament website (who writes these things, anyway?)

“I am very excited to be returning to the WTA at the Bank of the West Classic. Becoming a mother has been the most rewarding thing that has ever happened to me and really puts things in perspective. I am looking forward to beginning this new stage of my career.”

Azarenka won the singles title in Stanford in 2010 and the doubles title in 2011 with another new mom, the now-retired Maria Kirilenko. It has not, ironically enough, been a tournament at which she’s had great results overall. She has played it just twice since then, losing her first match in 2011 to Marina Erakovic of New Zealand and her first match in 2014 to Venus Williams.