WTA: Serena Williams without ranking for the first time since 1997

Serena Williams has almost everything a tennis player can have. At the moment, however, the dominator of the last few years lacks one thing: a ranking.

The reduction of the seeded lists at the Grand Slam tournaments to just 16 players is a matter of fact since the Australian Open 2019, the idea behind it says that in earlier rounds it can lead to more interesting matches. Especially for the ladies you don’t have to worry about that at the moment anyway, some longstanding top players like Dominika Cibulkova are looking for her form, Maria Sharapova is only slowly back on the way back to the top after her return to the ban on doping. So early hits are quite possible, the ranking ensures that.

If you have one! Serena Williams, for example, has been searched in vain since Monday in the depths of the WTA charts. For the first time since 1997.

At that time, Serena, who was still pausing after the birth of her first daughter, appeared on the big tennis stage in Moscow for the first time, and afterwards had a lot of fun with Monica Seles and Mary Pierce at the WTA tournament in Chicago, then both members of the top ten.

Last year Serena finished 22nd in the world, thanks to her triumph at the Australian Open. These points from her last match, however, fell out of the rankings on Monday – which means that Venus is only one of the most successful family clan in tennis history in the current rankings.

Serena will celebrate her return to the US Fed Cup team in her first appearance after the break with the Dutch ladies. In Ashville it will only be a matter of progress, the first step towards defending the title, but not of points for the WTA World Ranking.

The comeback of Serena Williams in the circle of all WTA competitors has been announced for Indian Wells: If the organizers should proceed according to the current world ranking list, then an explosive duel could wait in round one, in the worst (or best?) case even a new edition of the Sister Act. Due to its Protected Ranking, Serena does not need to worry about qualifying for the main fields.