Roger Federer and Serena Williams have been among the greatest players to pick up a tennis racket. Their greatness is second to none when it comes to tennis. Further, they have enthralled fans all across the globe with their audacious displays on the court. While Serena has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, Federer has 20 major titles to his credit.
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However, the two players have been away from action since Wimbledon, last season. While Serena slipped on the wet grass court and injured her hamstring, Federer suffered a knee injury in the aftermath of his quarterfinal defeat against Hubert Hurkacz at the tournament. The two players have further bad news coming their way.
Roger Federer and Serena Williams set to lose their ranking
Earlier this week, the ATP and the WTA announced a massive decision to strip Wimbledon of ranking points. This ruling comes after the tournament banned Russian and Belarusian players from playing the tournament this year. As a result, players will lose the ranking points earned at Wimbledon in 2021.
Meanwhile, Serena and Federer have already lost a major chunk of points that they had won last season. Thus, even if they play at Wimbledon this year, they will lose their points earned last season and their ranking points will become nil after Wimbledon. As a result, they will become unranked and disappear from the rankings.
Roger Federer and Serena Williams will disappear from the rankings after Wimbledon even if they play the tournament.
— José Morgado (@josemorgado) May 21, 2022
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Wimbledon expresses disappointment with ATP and WTA’s decisions
The tournament released a statement in the aftermath of getting stripped of ranking points. Expressing disappointment, the tournament statement read, “We therefore wish to state our deep disappointment at the decisions taken by the ATP, WTA, and ITF in removing ranking points for The Championships. We believe these decisions to be disproportionate in the context of the exceptional and extreme circumstances of this situation and the position we found ourselves in and damaging to all players who compete on Tour.”
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Further, Novak Djokovic has also been affected by this decision. The Serb will lose 2000 ranking points earned last season. This will result in him losing the top spot in the ATP rankings.