Should Serena Williams Have Been Installed as No. 1 Seed?

There has been much debate about where Serena Williams, should be seeded for the 2011 U.S. Open. Well, it has now been decided that Williams will be seeded 28th. The U.S. Open has basically taken the view that they will use the official rankings as a guide to seeds and not take part performance into account. This is certainly a policy they have tended to use in the past.

Serena Williams has shot up the rankings recently and this week, is ranked 29th in the world. That is up from 175th in July. It was reported in July that Serena Williams had used her protected number one ranking to gain direct entry into the field of the U.S. Open. Williams has been injured for more than six months and is entitled to use this special ranking to enter up to 8 tournaments, which includes one Grand Slam.

At the last Grand Slam Serena Williams was seeded significantly higher. At Wimbledon, Williams was seeded seventh, which was 19 places ahead of her Ranking at the time. Of course, in that tournament Serena Williams lost in the fourth round.

However, irrespective of her seeding for the U.S. Open there is surely no doubt that Serena Williams is the hot favourite. The latest betting odds concur with this view bet365 have installed her as the 6/4 favourite ahead of Maria Sharapova, Petra Kvitova and Victoria Azarenka.

The rankings in the women's game don't count for an awful lot in comparison to the men. Certainly, there are some talented athletes but a lack of consistency across the Grand Slams makes the information unreliable. For instance, world number one Caroline Wozniacki has never won a Grand Slam.

Serena Williams appears to be the stand-out candidate to win the U.S. Open. Therefore, it is right to question the seeding system used at the U.S. Open this year. Williams is now fully fit and raring to go after recent tournament wins in Toronto and Stanford. In short, the rest of the tennis world should be very scared.

The organisers at Wimbledon this year decided that even a Serena Williams that has spent many months out of action with injury and illness was still a significant threat. So, they therefore installed her as the seventh seed, despite the fact that her ranking was well below that. In truth, Williams was never going to have a chance after spending so long out.

So are the organisers at the U.S. Open disrespecting Serena Williams? There is certainly an argument that they are. Certainly, Serena Williams should be seeded higher after winning 13 Grand Slam titles, a figure that includes being a champion at the U.S. Open three times. There are even those who feel that given her past record and reputation, Williams should be the number one seed.

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