"She never requested that her ranking be frozen," Tolleson said. "All she asked for was that fair consideration be given to her because of her predicament. It wasn't like she sprained an ankle or anything."
Smith polled top players at the Italian Open in Rome. According to Smith, it was "nearly unanimous" that no adjustment should be given to Seles' ranking during her absence.
Tolleson said Seles resented the manner in which the issue was presented and the fact that the Women's Tennis Council was not involved. There is also some feeling in the Seles-IMG camp that Smith was quick to generate publicity for himself at the expense of Seles.
Smith said he thinks the WTA acted correctly. He said the council was not involved because the WTA owns the rankings, not the council.
"I don't have any regrets," Smith said.
"We were looking to be as sympathetic to Monica as we could be," Smith said. "We wanted to provide her with a comfort zone."
In any event, Seles' ranking is going to start to drop as a result of the WTA decision. Rankings are based on an average of total points earned from playing tournaments and divided by 12, the minimum number of tournaments that are counted.
Points from tournaments Seles played last year will drop off her total and there will be no other points to replace them.
Of course, there's nothing to stop Seles from reclaiming her No. 1 ranking once she recovers.
Until then, the Seles sightings and Seles stories will continue to mount. Someone will probably start leaving tickets for her at the gate, like she was Elvis or something.
Maybe she will arrive for her next tournament suspended in the basket of a hot air balloon as it floats lazily down to the court. It will be a great publicity stunt. Then she will announce she is giving up tennis for a career in Hollywood. Why not? Everything so far may have been just for practice.
