The WTA Player Council is considering amendments to the special rankings rules for players coming back from pregnancy, according to Victoria Azarenka.
Currently, the WTA provides players returning from injury layoffs or pregnancy with a “special ranking” that can be used to enter tournaments, but not for seeding at those tournaments. Players can enter eight events using the protected ranking they had when they left, including for two Premier Mandatory events and two Grand Slams. Wild cards do not count towards the quota, and former champions of big events can receive unlimited wild cards.
The provision has received scrutiny since Serena Williams returned to tournament play a few weeks ago. Though she has a protected ranking of No. 1, Williams has been unseeded at the two WTA events she has played, and has run into top players in the first few rounds. At Indian Wells, she played her sister, Venus, in the third round, falling in two sets. At Miami, she exited in the first round against Naomi Osaka, who was coming of a title at Indian Wells.
Azarenka, another player who is returning following childbirth, said a balance had to be found between the returning player and those who had moved up into seeding positions in the meantime.
"I look at it from two perspectives, because the conversation started because of Serena, you know, and all respect to her, if we look at her achievements and where she's come from, where I come from, it might be a fair choice that we do have a seeding in the tournaments after coming back," Azarenka told press at Miami following her opening win.
"On the other perspective that I have to look at, as well, is the other players who worked really hard [and won't have] that seeding. It's a difficult question, because if we do make that rule, it will have to be for everybody. So we have started this conversation a little bit in the player council. I'm a part of the player council. So we need to make sure that everybody is on the same level."
But Azarenka did say that players returning from pregnancy should not be under the same schedule as injured players. While the amount of time players have to come back from pregnancy has recently been extended and is now the same as for players coming back from injury, Azarenka wants it to be longer.
Final point of Azarenka's match against Keys in Miami:
