Wimbledon officials have some explaining to do.
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USA TODAY Sports' For the Win reported that All England Lawn and Tennis Club has not been kind to Serena Williams on the eve of the 2014 tournament.
The world's No. 1 player was passed over for the honor of opening play on Centre Court and then was given as unfavorable a draw as a No. 1 player could receive.
Traditionally, the reigning men's champion opens Monday play on Centre Court at Wimbledon, and the reigning women's champion open's Tuesday's play on Centre Court.
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But because reigning women's champion Marion Bartoli retired shortly after winning last year's Grand Slam event on grass, Wimbledon officials then had to follow a list of criteria to select a player to take her place.
According to SI.com's Tennis Mailbag, the criteria seemed to point to Williams earning that honor.
"The good folks at the All England Club explained to us that they have a few choices: the slot can go to the champion two years ago, the current top seed or most recent finalist. Given that Serena Williams meets two of those three criteria, the guess is that she gets the call."
Good guess but wrong. Sabine Lisicki, who was the other finalist last year and beat Serena along the way, gets the honor. For the Win explained that Lisicki, who is seeded 19th, has just a 17-16 record since her finals appearance at Wimbledon, and has not reached the quarterfinal of any of her 11 tournaments played in 2014.
Most media outlets are reporting that Williams draw is just a result of bad luck. She potentially could face Alize Cornet, who defeated her at Dubai in the third round, No. 13 Eugenie Bouchard or No. 20 Andrea Petkovic - both French Open semifinalists - in the fourth round, No. 5 and French Open champion Maria Sharapova in the quarterfinals and No. 3 and French Open finalist Simona Halep in the semifinals.
Normally in tournaments, the top seed is set up to play the lowest available seed in each ascending round if results go according to seeding. Think of the NCAA basketball tournament. The No. 1 seed faces the No. 16 seed in the first game, then the No. 8 seed in the second game, the No. 4 team in the regional semifinals and so on.
Wimbledon separates the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds on different halves of the bracket, but then picks randomly in other brackets so that if the top four seeds advanced to the semifinals, Williams would have equal chance of facing the No. 3 or No. 4 player.
So it is a bit of an odd coincidence that Williams potentially could play the highest seed in the quarterfinals and semifinals, rather than the lowest season. Instead of a potential match with the No. 8 seed in the quarterfinals - which would be the case in a normal tournament - she plays the No. 5 seed.
And instead of playing the No. 4 seed in the semis, she would be matched up against the No. 3 seed. So if seeding holds true, Williams would face an opponent a round earlier than she would in a normal draw.
If this were the U.S. Open, Serena would be matched up in the semifinals against the winner of the quarterfinal between the No. 4 (which would be Agnieszka Radwanska) vs. the No. 5 seed (Sharapova) and then would play in the finals against the semifinal winner between the No. 2 (Li Na) and the No. 3 (Halep).
Why Wimbledon chooses to make its draw that way is anyone's guess. Of course, if Wimbledon did follow the traditional pairing model, Serena potentially would face new pal Caroline Wozniacki, the No. 16 seed, in the fourth round.
Wimbledon would argue that shows that any bias is absent in the random drawing. Which then goes back to the other issue. Knowing that the arbitrary draw could work against Serena, officials should have made the common sense decision that she should've opened play on center court.
But what's a good conspiracy theory in women's tennis if Serena Williams isn't involved?
Do you think Wimbledon officials treated Serena Williams unfairly? Comment below or tell us @SportsWN.
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