Serena Williams will need a wild card or have to use her special ranking to get into the U.S. Open. Williams dropped to No. 175 after falling in the fourth round of Wimbledon to Marion Bartoli. The entry cutoff for the U.S. Open is six weeks prior to the event, which begins on August 29. Three-time U.S. Open champion Serena’s next event will be the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, which begins on July 25, six weeks before the U.S. Open begins.
Players who are injured for six months or more can use a special ranking for entry eight times beginning on the first day of their return, which for Serena would have been the Wimbledon warm-up Eastbourne, which she competed in the week prior to Wimbledon. A player’s special ranking is the ranking she earned immediately after the points of the last tournament she played. For Serena, that would have been Wimbledon 2010. She was ranked No. 1 at the time.