The discussion follows from tennis player Serena Williams, who gave birth to her daughter in September of 2017, not receiving 'special treatment' after entering the French Open last month. At the start of her pregnancy leave she was ranked number one in the world, dropping to number 491 several months later due to inactivity.
Pregnancy leave in the world of badminton
In the sport of badminton your world ranking is the deciding factor with regards to seeding positions. For doubles pairs their notational ranking might be factored in.1
When players get injured on- or off-court and they are sidelined for months on end, their ranking usually suffers. There currently are no specific provisions in place that would protect their seeding positions they would have had sans injury, other than the notational ranking 'adjustment' for pairs that have played fewer than eight tournaments together in a 52-week period. This is a particular benefit that women's and men's singles players do NOT enjoy.
If you get pregnant (more so for women's singles than [mixed] doubles players) you simply have to accept the world ranking consequences of your intimate decision-making process.
What would happen then, if a (by biological determination FEMALE) singles player should get pregnant while badminton world number one?
Please note: the following is a hypothetical situation!
Tai Tzu Ying currently is 24 years and four days young and world number one in women's singles. Imagine this Taiwanese player announces her and goes on pregnancy leave in October this year, gives birth on March 24, 2019 and after only four months (one month later than Serena Williams did) she wants to compete.
The Indonesia Open 2019 takes place from July 16 to July 21, 2019 and a World Tour Super 1000 tournament is a great comeback event for Tzu Ying. June 14, 2019 is the world ranking date for seeding of the Indonesia Open and due to Tai's inactivity on the circuit, her ranking will have dropped substantially to somewhere round the number 150 position.
In a field of 32 players in the women's singles discipline, Tai Tzu Ying wouldn't even be at the top of the reserve player list, as the lowest ranked player in the main tournament (for the 2018 edition of this tournament) has a world ranking of 56. Ultimately, Tai Tzu Ying would have to gain world ranking points elsewhere, at lower grade tournaments, and try again for the Australian Open in 2020.
So... No special treatment for Tai Tzu Ying, a (women's) singles player who would have not played for months due to pregnancy.
Reacties 1
It is an interesting complicated situation to re-insert top rank players that temporary leave competition due to biological reasons. To be fair, exceptional players tend to resume their level of play after a short time of adjustment. An exceptional wild card should be introduced and players that achieve in top 20 ranking should never drop lower than 64 on their return. A lot depends on the duration time away and the player's condition, talent, experience and ability to perform.
Honestly look at Lin Dan, he was in hiatus and when he came back, he did not lose a beat due to his excellent condition, skill, and experience - even now he is still in the top 20.
Reacties zijn afkomstig uit de periode dat badmintonline.nl Disqus gebruikte als reactiesysteem.