Wimbledon - Seeding Makes Serena Happy - Leaving Cibulkova Unhappy
Posted on the 28 June 2018 by Sampathkumar Sampath
One would have
witnessed some people jumping Queue (say in trying to get a train seat or in a
Ration shop) – so, when a person or a group of persons – cut the queue and
surge ahead, they actually prevent those legitimately in the queue in getting
their due share !! ~ I had posted earlier on Wimbledon seeding and Serena’s
comeback after giving birth to a child.
Dominika
Cibulkováis a Slovak professional
tennis player who haswon eight WTA
singles titles and two on the ITF circuit.In 2014 she appeared in the finals of Australian open becoming the first
female Slovak to reach the championship round of a grandslam. She also won the WTA Finals in 2016,
becoming the fourth player (after Serena Williams in 2001, Maria Sharapova in
2004 and Petra Kvitová in 2011) to win the tournament on debut.
Remember
Cawley playing in a Wimbledon finals.Evonne
Fay Goolagong Cawley, was one of the world's leading players in the
1970s and early 1980s, during which she won 14 Grand Slam titles: seven in
singles (four at the Australian Open, two at Wimbledon and one at the French
Open), six in women's doubles, and one in mixed doubles.
Now comes the news
that Seven-time Wimbledon champion Serena Williams is the 25th seed for this year's tournament, despite being
outside the top 32 in the rankings.Serena Williams, whose world ranking is No. 183 after she took time off
to have a baby last year, has been seeded 25th in the singles draw at Wimbledon, the
tournament announced this day.Serena Williams’s
elevated status was the only deviation from the world rankings made by the
seeding committee, made up of the tournament referee; representatives from the
All England Club, the tournament host; and representatives from the Lawn Tennis
Association, the governing body for tennis in Britain.
A seeding of 25 at
Wimbledon, while much higher than someone with Williams’s world ranking could
normally expect, still brings a difficult road as the tournament progresses.
Seeds from 25 – to – 32 are drawn to
face one of the top eight seeds in the third round. The top eight players are Simona Halep, the
French Open champion; Caroline Wozniacki, the Australian Open champion; Garbiñe
Muguruza, the defending Wimbledon champion; Sloane Stephens, the United States
Open champion; Elina Svitolina; Caroline Garcia; Karolina Pliskova; and Petra
Kvitova.
The 36-year-old
American returning to the thick was in
news as she was away from play after giving birth to her first child in
September. Williams, a 23-time Grand Slam singles winner, has played only three
tournaments in the past 12 months and is ranked 183rd in the world… .. .. and
that brings some agony to - Slovakia's world number 32 Dominika Cibulkova who
now would be unseeded. On Tuesday, Cibulkova said it would not be fair for
Williams to be seeded ahead of her. "I don't think it's the right thing to
do," said the 29-year-old. "I think it's just not fair. I have tried
and I should be seeded. If they put her in front of me then I will lose my spot
that I am supposed to have."
Simona Halep is the top
seed, with Roger Federer her counterpart in the men's draw.Federer is seeded a place higher than his
world ranking, with world number one Rafael Nadal the second seed. With the
exception of Williams, and perhaps Cibulkova, all of the women are seeded in line with their
WTA ranking. Williams is seeded one place lower than Maria Sharapova, who she
was due to meet in the fourth round of the French Open before pulling out
because of injury. Her sister Venus is the ninth seed.
However, due to different rules in the two draws, Andy Murray
cannot be seeded as he sits outside the top 32 in the rankings. Britain's
three-time Grand Slam champion is returning from a hip injury. Williams will
not have to face another seeded player before the third round, but at that
stage should expect to run into one of the top eight in the world. So the
protection a seeding offers her will be limited – that may be bane not for her,
but for that seed !
Though the committee clearly felt Williams is a unique case: an extraordinary
champion who has only been able to play three events in the past year after
giving birth to her first child in September.
By elevating Williams to the No. 25 seed, the Wimbledon committee edged
Dominika Cibulkova, ranked No. 32, out of the seedings. Cibulkova, who reached
a career high of No. 4 in March last year, has had more middling results this
year, with a 14-13 record. She lost in the first rounds of the Australian Open
and French Open.
In 1980 in the finals
the good looking Chris Evert Lloyd played againstand lost to Evonne Goolagong Cawley.Martina Navratilova was the defending
champion, but lost to her rival Chris Evert Lloyd in the semifinals. Cawley defeated Evert Lloyd in the final, 6–1,
7–6(7–4) to win the Ladies' Singles tennis title at the 1980 Wimbledon
Championships. The second-set tiebreaker in the final was the first tiebreak
ever played in the ladies singles final at Wimbledon and the match was the
first ever singles final (men's or women's) to end on a tiebreak.
Goolagong realized
during the 1976 US Open final that she was pregnant and did not play again on
the regular tour until the late summer of 1977, continuing through to Wimbledon
1978. An ankle injury forced her to miss the remainder of 1978and she did not return to competitive play
until March 1979. In 1980, She withdrew
from the US Open where she had been seeded fourth, due to a recurring back
injury and in the early stages of her second pregnancy.She is the only mother to have won the
Wimbledon title since Dorothea Lambert Chambers in 1914.
Interesting !
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
28th June
2018..