Serena “pleasantly surprised” to be seeded at Wimbledon

Serena Williams enters this year’s Wimbledon Championships as the 25th seed. And she’s fine with that.

The American, a seven-time champion at the All England Club, is currently ranked No.181 as she continues to make her way back from maternity leave.

Her position in the field – whether she would be unseeded or seeded, and if seeded, at what number – was a topic of high interest and much discussion ahead of this year’s tournament.

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Many felt a player of Serena’s stature and accomplishments should of course be seeded. Petra Kvitova suggested a seeding of No.9. Others, including world No.32 Dominika Cibulkova – who would ultimately feel the sting of being unseeded – felt it was unfair to those players Serena was leapfrogging.

“I feel like if they seeded her, there are going to be critics. If they don’t, there are going to be critics,” defending champion Garbine Muguruza said on Sunday.

“Every next scenario, there is going to be something.”

In the end, tournament organisers settled on the seeding they did.

“I think I would be very ungrateful if I sat here and said it was too low, to be honest,” Williams said on Sunday. “I don’t at all feel that way. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised.

“I came in here expecting that maybe I wouldn’t get a seed. I do know Wimbledon tends to kind of beat to their own drum. That’s kind of one thing that’s been able to set them apart.

“It was a little bit in the back of my mind, that I would have a chance (of being seeded). I’m here to do the best that I can do. I thought it was very, very noble and honest and cool. Maybe not honest, but cool (smiling).”

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Williams has drawn Arantxa Rus in round one, and should the seedings hold, she’d meet No.5 Elina Svitolina in the last 32.

The pectoral muscle injury that forced her withdrawal from the fourth round at Roland Garros has healed. And she’s been in London for a week already, acclimatising to the city’s unusually hot summer weather.

“I was working out every day (since Paris). I just didn’t serve. I didn’t serve actually till I got here, to be honest. Still I’m debating if I should go 120 (mph) or whatever. I haven’t yet. But it’s been good,” she said.

“For me, it was mostly just about the serve. So I took almost three weeks from serving completely, just doing an incredible amount of rehabilitation for my shoulder, like twice a day, so much work. I don’t think I’ve ever done that much, like, consistently back-to-back rehabilitation for something.

“I think it worked because so far so good. I’ll see how it goes.”