Posted on 05/29/2018 7:15:36 AM PDT by EdnaMode
Serena Williams was the No. 1 tennis player in the world in January of last year. She had just beaten big sister Venus to win the Australian Open for a seventh time. Oh, and she did it while being 8 weeks pregnant.
It was an incredible feat. Yet, Serena's pregnancy, which obviously kept her off the professional tennis circuit for months, is now the reason she has fallen to No. 453 in the world. She is making her comeback grand slam debut at this month's French Open in Paris. But, because her maternity leave prevented her from competing for awhile, she failed to receive a seeded ranking at the tournament, meaning she'd have to play much more difficult opponents. The old rule allowed players on maternity leave to return to the tour with the same ranking, but grumblings led to a change in policy, Williams recently explained on "The View." She suggested the policy was penalizing mothers for wanting to start a family, but she accepted it, noting that it simply meant she would have to practice and train more.
"You have to be ready to play the best the first day," she said.
She added that "hopefully" the next time a player needs to take maternity leave they don't have to start so low in the rankings.
First daughter Ivanka Trump spoke up on the tennis star's behalf last week, calling the policy "ridiculous."
Ivanka Trump ✔ @IvankaTrump This is ridiculous. @SerenaWilliams is a formidable athlete (best ever!) and loving new mother. No person should ever be penalized professionally for having a child! The #WTA should change this rule immediately. #FrenchOpen.http://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/23563755/serena-williams-return-french-open-unseeded-player … 1:31 PM - May 24, 2018
To anyone who's been paying attention to Ivanka's schedule, it was no surprise she spoke up for the tennis star. Since her dad became president, she has pursued policies that protect the family structure, including paid family leave.
Ivanka Trump ✔ @IvankaTrump #PaidFamilyLeave is not a nationally mandated benefit in the US. 46 states leave the decision up to employers. However, only 15% of workers have access to #PaidFamilyLeave at their workplaces. We need a national #PaidLeave policy to ensure #FamilyBenefits for all in our country! 1:00 PM - May 25, 2018 · Washington, DC
I support Maria Sharapova being on TV as much as possible.
Mixed feelings about this - shouldn’t the former #1 seed be expected to play tougher opponents? Since when is a seeded position guaranteed when one takes a leave of absence for any reason????
In fact, I think all tennis tournaments should by rule be required to include Maria Sharapova and Anna Kournikova.
The top seeds play unseeded players in the first and second round and lower seeded players (unless unseeded players cause upsets) in the next rounds.
Yes, that sounds right.
Still begs the question - since she hasn’t been competing and the rest have, why does she deserve to be considered the top seed? If she’s still that good, she will claw her way back to the top - being the top seed should mean everyone else is chasing you because on any given day you will prevail...
Sports crystallizes the issue in a way other jobs don't. Because there are ranking and the like. But in the real world, when women go on maternity leave other people have to cover for them. Those people get no more pay. They just do it. Then when the women come back they often change their work schedule. They come in earlier, leave earlier, for example. Strictly 8 hours a day, that sort of thing. Great, prioritize your kids, I agree with that. But at the same time, other people are working those hours the women used to, unless she did nothing before.
When one does that, they shouldn't expect to rise at the same speed as people who haven't made those sorts of choices. The man or woman down the hall who works 60 hour weeks and never takes a day off might get that promotion first, might get a bigger raise. That shouldn't be a shock but it seems many women feel like they should be able to stay on the fast track even as they reduce their presence at work.
It's hard to cite examples but in the sports world you can say "she was ranked #1 and then after she took a year off to raise her kid she's ranked # 460." And people will say "that's wrong, she was clearly the best before she left" and so she should be treated as if she's obviously still the best now (in spite of lack of supporting evidence).
Serena Williams is a freak of nature, if she works as hard as she always has I'm sure she'll get back to the top ASAP. If she doesn't work quite as hard, puts in fewer hours of practice, then she may never rise that high again. That's up to her, what's most important to her and how she most wants to spend her time.
This is another faux outrage, if a male player were out due to injury or other reason for months, his ranking would slip as well....
She can, and I am sure will, quickly climb back up the rankings..
Invented outrage
Couldn’t agree more - thanks for that...
She has lost early in both tournaments she played in since her return. Combine that with inactivity, and you fall out of the rankings... She is 36 and just had a baby, she may never return to her former glory. Or maybe she will. She did beat the #29 ranked player back in March before being spanked by her #8 ranked sister, so she is well above her current official ranking.
LOL. This is WOMEN’S tennis. She is being ranked against other women. If they up her ranking to accommodate her maternity leave, it will bump another woman down. This has nothing to do with the evil male patriarchy. It has to do with one PC-trendy woman screwing another woman.
The Williams sisters are men.
You know they are. Maternity leave or not!
No work, no pay. No play, no ranking. Welcome to the real world!
In this "real world", you're referring to, anyone with a brain knows that Serena Williams remains one of the top-ranked players in the world, if not still #1, until proven otherwise on the court.
Any member of the group of "experts" that ranked Serena at #453 needs to set their crack pipe down, and stop drinking.
I predict Serena will squash her opponents like insects at the French Open, and win it all...
To think that Serena won't catapult back to #1 almost immediately goes against everything I've ever seen with respect to her conditioning and drive. Winning the French Open—or at least performing strongly—will be an important first step...
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