Serena Williams is back near the top of the WTA rankings, resurfacing in the top 10 after Indian Wells last month and now registering at No. 11. The former world No. 1 is making her way back to the top after dropping all the way down to No. 491 when she returned to competitive play following the birth of her first child. Williams’s ascent in the rankings is mainly due to her reaching the finals of Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2018. Despite some stumbling blocks along the way, including the 2018 US Open final, Williams is likely well on her way to reclaiming the No. 1 spot.
The American could’ve ranked higher had she advanced further in this year’s Australian Open, where she lost to seventh seed Karolína Pliskova in the quarterfinals. Despite that disappointment, Williams is starting to look like the player who has been ranked in the top spot for a total of 319 weeks during her career—or the equivalent of a little more than six years. Despite the aforementioned drop in rankings, she is still unmatched by her peers in terms of achievements. An article by Lottoland on the 10 most inspirational athletes of all-time emphasizes Williams’ 23 Grand Slam singles titles—the most in the Open Era and second-most overall, just one behind Margaret Court. That total has been stuck at 23 for more than two years now, though Williams is still more than capable of adding at least a couple more.
Obviously, Williams wouldn’t have almost fallen outside the top 500 if not for her pregnancy, which she announced a couple of months after winning the 2017 Australian Open for her 23rd slam win. The New York Times confirmed that Williams was already expecting when she competed in Melbourne, where it was business as usual. She did not play in any other tournaments thereafter as she took maternity leave. Consequently, Williams’s ranking dipped dramatically.
Complicating things was her life-threatening C-section, as she experienced complications a day after and had to undergo multiple surgeries. Williams shared her ordeal with CNN in a thoughtfully written recollection. According to Williams, her brush with death began with a pulmonary embolism—which caused intense coughing that ultimately led to her fresh C-section wound bursting open. As doctors performed emergency surgery, they then found a massive hematoma flooding her abdomen, and that invariably led to more surgeries. As a result, Williams was bedridden for six weeks, thus delaying her return to training and to elite-level tennis. Williams thankfully recovered, and even attempted to play the 2018 Australian Open. She was, however, deemed unfit to compete.
Williams finally made her tennis comeback in the first round of the Fed Cup in February of 2018, when she and her older sister Venus lost to Lesley Kerkhove and Demi Schuurs. Early exits at Indian Wells and Miami showed that the younger Williams was still far from top form. But at the very least she was back playing, and it wasn’t long before she started getting better. By the time Wimbledon rolled along in July, Williams was beginning to resemble her old self. Still, she hasn’t been able to get past the final hurdle just yet, getting to finals but not actually winning them.
But after going through that near-fatal ordeal, best believe that Williams is happy that she’s still playing competitive tennis. And from the looks of it, she has plenty left in the tank. The fact that she’s back in the top 10 is proof of that. It may very well be a sign of things to come for arguably the greatest female tennis player ever. The WTA’s No. 1 spot is well within her sight, and Williams is set on reclaiming it.
No. 1 could be tough
This article is like half a year late