SEED SERENA GETS SPECIAL TREATMENT
Wimbledon served up some fudge to go with the strawberries and cream yesterday when they addressed the issue of Serena Williams and her seeding for The Championships.
As suggested by Sportsmail on Tuesday, they opted to give her protection when the draw is made tomorrow, but only a limited amount.
When the seedings were announced yesterday she was placed at no 25, a substantial elevation from her current world ranking of 183.
Acknowledging her lowly position and lack of matches — she has only played seven times since giving birth on September 1 last year — she has been lined up with a potential meeting against one of the top eight in the third round.
That could theoretically mean the two favourites for the women’s singles, Williams and twice-champion Petra Kvitova, playing each other in the first week.
Perhaps if the 36-year-old American had bothered to play a warm-up event she might have been placed higher.
Yet she is still getting special treatment and it is a sign of her clout that this has become an issue. nobody discussed it much when other recently returning Grand Slam-winning mothers faced the same issue, such as Victoria Azarenka and Kim Clijsters.
one advantage of yesterday’s decision to seed as low as 25 is that only one player has been affected, Slovakia’s 2014 Australian open finalist dominika Cibulkova, who got bumped out of the seedings despite a world ranking of 32.
Cibulkova is not happy about that and said on Tuesday: ‘it’s just not fair if there is a player (missing out) and it’s me now.
‘i have the right and i should be seeded and if they put her in front of me then i will just lose my spot. i don’t know if something like this ever happened before.’
She is not alone among the players in believing that professional tennis is not an ordinary workplace, and that making allowances for pregnant players is unfair on others.
Caroline Wozniacki, the no2 seed, nevertheless backed the decision, saying: ‘i think Serena deserves to be seeded.’
The rules on this need better definition, and in the end Wimbledon has used a coverall clause which allows them to intervene to produce a ‘balanced’ draw.
The tournament itself would like to adopt a more hard-and-fast policy as applies on the men’s side.
While hardly straightforward it disallows arguments, such as the one affecting Williams, by saying that no one can be seeded unless they are already ranked in the world’s top 32. Then past accomplishments on grass are taken into consideration under a fixed formula.
Therefore there is no place for lowly-ranked Andy murray, however strong his record on the lawns, who is fast looking the most dangerous ‘floater’ in the draw.
The formula has meant that world no 2 Roger Federer is switched around with world no 1 Rafael nadal as no 1 and no 2 seed respectively, although that is only a symbolic thing.