Once her wellness and fitness is determined there can be an opinion included in any appeal as to the rigors of returning to her previous rank and tournament routine as opposed to repeated trials to achieve the same goal.
In recent tournaments, she had varied results. The WTA may want to review those tournaments to decide if the rigors of returning are unfairly leveraged. Her health, well being and continued success should be at the core of any decision of the WTA.
...The WTA is considering a rule change (click here) to add protected seedings for highly ranked players returning from maternity leave but the earliest that could take effect is next year.
Several of Williams’ biggest rivals believe she deserves a seeding. “I would like to see that [rule] change,” Maria Sharapova said at the Italian Open last week. “It’s such an incredible effort for a woman to come back from physically, emotionally. ... There’s just another whole dimension to the travel, to the experiences, to the emotions to the physicality of every single day.”
Williams returned to the tour briefly in March after a 14-month absence. She was not seeded at tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami, and compiled two wins and two losses.
Williams has recounted the difficulties she faced in childbirth, and a pulmonary embolism made it hard for her to breathe shortly after her daughter was born. But after a period of training, coach Patrick Mouratoglou last week told the WTA tour website that “Serena will play the French Open to win it.”...
