‘WTA should rethink Serena’s Miami draw’
MIAMI: Miami Open tournament director James Blake on Monday urged tennis chiefs to rethink seeding rules after Serena Williams was handed a tough draw at this week’s event in Florida.
Blake believes Williams is effectively being penalised for taking maternity leave by existing WTA tournament regulations. The 23-time Grand Slamwinning American heads into this week’s Miami Open as an unseeded player after taking 13 months off to have her first child.
Such a lengthy absence means she’s currently ranked 491 and although the 36-year-old can use a protected world standing to enter up to eight tournaments during a 12-month period — thus avoiding qualifying — it does not apply to seedings.
In her “home” tournament in Miami, which she has won eight times, Williams has been drawn against Naomi Osaka, the Japanese 20-year-old who arrives in South Florida having lifted the Indian Wells title at the weekend for her first major honour.
Special seedings were sometimes applied to those players returning from long lay-offs but that rule was scrapped by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA). Blake, the new tournament director of the Miami Open, believes the WTA has treated Williams harshly. “I think they are going to start talking about changing the way some seedings are done and I hope they do,” Blake said.
“For someone who goes on maternity break, they should be protected. She has won this title so many times that she needs protection.”