Serena Williams ATP Rankings WTA Rankings home icon Tennis Wimbledon 2023 “I don’t think it’s the right thing to do, just not fair” – When Serena Williams courted controversy from Dominika Cibulkova over Wimbledon seeding When Serena Williams courted controversy from Dominika Cibulkova over Wimbledon seeding “I don’t think it’s the right thing to do, just not fair” – When Serena Williams courted controversy from Dominika Cibulkova over Wimbledon seeding

Despite being ranked outside the top 150 at the time, Serena Williams was offered a seeding at the 2018 Wimbledon Championships, drawing the ire of fellow WTA player Dominika Cibulkova. Williams was on her comeback trail after having given birth to her daughter Olympia the previous year. Ranked World No. 183 at the time, the American entered Wimbledon with a Protected Ranking. However, the tournament authorities took it upon themselves to offer her a seeding, allotting her the No. 25 spot. This did have consequences for World No. 32 Cibulkova, who was pushed out of the seedings due to Williams’ promotion. The Slovak were incensed with the decision and called out Wimbledon for not doing the right thing. Cibulkova felt she had earned her spot and therefore deserved to be seeded over the 23-time Grand Slam champion.

“I don’t think it’s the right thing to do. I think it’s just not fair. I have tried and I should be seeded. If they put her in front of me then I will lose my spot that I am supposed to have,” Cibulkova said to the press.
Unseeded, Dominika Cibulkova turned out to have a good run at SW19 regardless, beating 22nd seed Johanna Konta (second round), 15th seed Elise Mertens (third round) and Hsieh Su-Wei (fourth round) to reach the quarterfinals.

When asked about the seeding controversy after her fourth-round clash, Cibulkova declined to expand on it further, stating that she was over the matter and that she did not want to talk about it anymore.
“I’m not going to comment on this anymore. This question I’ve been asked so many times this week, last week. I just don’t want to talk about it anymore, about the seeding thing. It’s over. It was over one week ago for me, so I don’t want to talk about it anymore,” she said at her press conference.