Well, look at Wimbledon, as they decide to allow Serena Williams into the top 32 seeds.
The great player has won 23 Grand Slam titles. She had her first child last year, so she stopped playing for 13 months. She was thrilled and happy. However, when she returned in March, she needed to adjust, to take time, to be patient. As she has said, she needs to be keep steady and not think about losing.
Here and there, over the past five months, she has been frustrated, but eventually, the 36-year-old will get better, month after month.
However, Williams has not played a lot this season and right now, she is ranked No. 183. But the decision by Wimbledon to allow her higher — much higher — seeding. When they announced the seedings, Serena is ranked No. 25.
I can live with that.
In many respects, it is better than just handing out wild cards, as the tournament say ‘yes, no problem, come on in.’ A lot of tournament directors and/or owners do it all the time. Like for Maria Sharapova, for instance. Over the past year, Sharapova received a ton of wild cards at various tournaments, but she wasn’t given seeds until she cracked the top 30. Now she is seeded, No. 24 at Wimbledon.
The fact is that on grass, in England, at Wimbledon, people pay attention. Serena has won that tournament seven times. I repeat: seven huge titles. Are we going to say that: “Hey, when you come back, you have to start again at zero. Nothing.”
But Serena is not nothing. If Wimbledon is going to rank the top 32, let them go to it. It is not like she is coming back from nowhere.
Whether to not Serena wins again, at least a number of people will go out to watch her on court. After all, she was the dominator, and she could be dominate on grass once again next week. Don’t complain about her, just watch her.