Serena Williams has stated that she was punished by pro-tennis ranking system because she took maternity leave.
According to her, the bias in the system made her ranking drop from #1 to #453.
“When I returned to tennis from maternity leave, I was penalized for taking time off: my ranking dropped from #1 in the world to #453,” Serena wrote.
SerenaWilliams gave birth to her baby Olympia back in September 2017 but had to stay away from tennis for 8 months because she had an emergency surgery after giving birth.
“That required me to face tougher competition earlier in the French Open, which led to a pectoral injury that forced me to drop out.”
“I fought hard personally, making it to the Wimbledon final shortly after, but I also fought hard publicly against the biased ranking system. We must stop penalizing women when they return to their careers after having children.”She added,
“Women deserve to be given the same respect and opportunities as our male counterparts. We are entitled to the same open doors.”
