WTA to protect rankings after fertility procedures

Women players who take to acquisition a fertility extortion process volition beryllium allowed to instrumentality clip distant from the athletics and instrumentality to competitory enactment with a protected ranking, the governing assemblage of women's tennis (WTA) said Wednesday.

The caller regularisation aims to enactment women athletes with balancing their household goals and vocation ambitions and comes 3 months aft the WTA offered players up to 12 months of paid maternity permission for the archetypal time.

"The caller regularisation means that players tin present instrumentality clip distant from nonrecreational tennis for a fertility extortion process specified arsenic ovum oregon embryo freezing and safely instrumentality to contention with a protected ranking," the WTA said successful a statement.

"Eligible players volition person a Special Entry Ranking (SER), which tin beryllium utilized to participate up to 3 tournaments, based connected the 12-week mean of their WTA Ranking from 8 weeks anterior to the commencement of their out-of-competition period."

Sloane Stephens, the 2017 US Open champion, has antecedently called for ovum freezing to beryllium recognized arsenic a protected ranking enactment and called Wednesday's announcement a "groundbreaking" move.

"I'm incredibly arrogant of our athletics successful recognizing the value of fertility treatments for pistillate athletes. For immoderate woman, the speech of household beingness versus a vocation is nuanced and complex," the erstwhile World No. 3 said.

"The WTA has present created a harmless abstraction for players to research options and to marque the champion decisions for themselves."

The WTA besides said players volition payment from paid maternity permission and grants for fertility extortion done the WTA Maternity Fund sponsored by the Saudi Public Investment Fund.