At the start of each Grand Slam tournament, 128 players populate both the women's and men's singles draws. Their means of entry may vary—a mix of direct entries, qualifiers and wild cards—but they often have one thing in common: a ranking on record in the ATP or WTA computer.
Also, being “ranked” is not to be confused with being “seeded.” Just 32 players—a quarter of the players in each draw—are also awarded a seed for each tournament.
So entering a major tournament without a ranking, or being seeded, is a rare circumstance, and that is exactly what unranked and unseeded Tsvetana Pironkova did at the 2020 US Open—and now, advancing into the women's quarterfinals makes her situation even more unique.
With four victories under her belt, including two over seeded players (Garbiñe Muguruza and Donna Vekic) so far this fortnight, and a quarterfinal match against Serena Williams awaiting her on Wednesday, tennis fans are either getting reacquainted with the former world No. 31, or seeing her for the first time.
The best player from her country for much of the late 2000s and nearly the entirety of the 2010s, the Bulgarian last competed at Wimbledon in 2017, and dropped out of the computer rankings after 52 weeks of inactivity. Between then and now, she gave birth to a son, Alexander, in 2018; recovered from a series of niggling injuries exacerbated by the week-in, week-out grind of the professional tennis circuit; and launched a sportswear line called Pironetic, which she's wearing in New York.
Announcing her intentions to return to tennis in March, just days before the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., became the first tennis tournament canceled as a result of COVID-19, it's likely that Pironkova wouldn't even be here at all were it not for the WTA tour's Special Ranking rule, in place to allow players to restart their careers following long abences due to illness, injury, or pregnancy.
Prior to the 2019 season, the WTA adjusted the rule specifically for a player returning from maternity leave, increasing the period for which she is eligible to three years, beginning on the date of the birth of her child, and allowing those who've been out of the game for one year or more to use that status to enter up to 12 tournaments in a 12-month period.
Under that rule—also referred to as a "protected ranking"—Pironkova was eligible to enter the US Open by virtue of the position she held when she last played (world No. 123), which was within the main-draw cutoff for the Open in the wake of the nearly six-month pandemic-related hiatus. That standing is used exclusively for tournament entry: Pironkova will not officially return to the WTA rankings until the tour's next weekly update, on Sept. 14.
"There was a time, maybe for one-and-a-half or two years after I became a mom, where I didn't really picture coming back to the tour at all," Pironkova said, after beating Vekic last week. "I was happy with the moment, just wanted to live through everything, through this new exciting time in my life. But then I started thinking about tennis more and more.
"Also, having this opportunity of the special ranking gives you more motivation, as well, because you're not starting from scratch, as we can see. My first tournament is actually main draw in US Open. That is a huge opportunity. At one point, I was like, 'I do not want to miss that opportunity.'"
According to the WTA, the 32-year-old is the sixth player since 2000 to have won a match at a Grand Slam with no ranking, joining Zuzana Kucova at the 2013 French Open, Justine Henin at the 2010 Australian Open, Kim Clijsters at the 2009 US Open, Kveta Peschke at the 2004 French Open, and Barbara Schwartz at 2001 Wimbledon.
Just two of those players—Belgium's Hall of Famers—had a run deeper than Pironkova in their respective events. Clijsters' run to the 2009 title in New York, and the ensuing photos of her and her first child, Jada, celebrating with the trophy are now the stuff of tournament lore. Just five months after her compatriot's victory in New York, Henin followed with a runner-up finish to Williams in Melbourne.
In her fifth match of the Open fortnight, it remains to be seen if the Bulgarian—who struggled with a leg injury in her fourth-round victory over France's Alizé Cornet, and has been candid in the press room about the toll that her comeback tournament has had on her body so far—can pull off another upset against the prohibitive title favorite, Williams, who continues to eye her 24th Grand Slam title.
But, as no stranger to defying the odds in her career the first time around—she was ranked No. 82 in the world when she reached the semifinals at Wimbledon in 2010, and outside the Top 100 when she knocked off three Top 10 players to win her lone WTA title in Sydney, Australia, in 2014—it's clear that Pironkova performs her best when it's least expected.
USOpen.org's Chris Oddo contributed to this story.
