Sport

Serena Williams welcomes new protections for returning mothers

Returning players can use previous ranking to enter 12 tournaments in three-year period

Serena Williams: “Women who are younger can go out and have kids and not have to worry about it.” Photograph: Karsten Moran/The New York Times

Thu Dec 27 2018 - 20:05

Serena Williams has welcomed the extra protection afforded to new mothers when they return to the WTA Tour after giving birth.

A player returning after pregnancy will be able to use their previous ranking to enter 12 tournaments over the space of a three-year period.

The updated rule, which was announced earlier this month and will come into effect next season, also ensures that those players will not face a seeded player in the first round.

Williams returned to action in February this year after giving birth to daughter Alexis Olympia in September 2017 and her ranking had plummeted to 451, which meant she was not seeded at the French Open.

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The 23-time grand slam champion, speaking in Abu Dhabi ahead of an exhibition event, said in quotes published by BBC Sport: “I think it’s great.

“Women that are younger can go out there and have kids and not have to worry about it, and not have to wait until the twilight of their years to have children, and I think it’s a really great rule.

“I think having gone through the experience myself really opened my eyes. Would have I done it sooner had there been different rule changes? I don’t know.

“But now there is an opportunity, people don’t have to ask that question.”

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