Serena Williams’ day started with a Wimbledon snub, then went downhill from there.

First, the five-time tournament champion was passed over for the ceremonial duty of opening the tournament on Centre Court. Then she had no luck during Friday’s draw ceremony, getting placed in a brutal quarter that features reigning French Open champion Maria Sharapova, a woman who beat her earlier this year in Alize Cornet, French Open semifinalist Andrea Petkovic and the only woman to reach the semis of the year’s first two majors, Eugenie Bouchard.

Let’s start with the slight. Traditionally, the reigning men’s champion opens Monday play on Centre Court while the reigning women’s champion opens Tuesday play. But since last year’s winner, Marion Bartoli, retired weeks after her Wimbledon title, the women’s spot was open. Jon Wertheim of Sports Illustrated recently described the procedure for such a situation.

The good folks at the All England Club explained to us that they have a few choices: the slot can go to the champion two years ago, the current top seed or most recent finalist. Given that Serena Williams meets two of those three criteria, the guess is that she gets the call.

That was the reasonable assumption, especially given that the most recent finalist is Sabine Lisicki, who has struggled since her near-triumph at Wimbledon. Lisicki is 17-16 since losing to Bartoli in the 2013 final. She’s just 4-3 at Slams, losing before the third round of each. She hasn’t advanced to the quarterfinals in any of her 11 tournaments this season and has just one semifinal in her 17 tournaments since last July. And now she’s opening the tournament over the biggest star in women’s tennis? It’s not as if last year’s finalist was Li Na or Sharapova or Victoria Azarenka. A star getting that slot would be fine. A middling top 20 player? Come on.

Last year’s finalist Sabine Lisicki given honor of starting the Centre Court on Tuesday. VERY odd pick over Serena… #Wimbledon #sideeye — Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) June 20, 2014

In fairness, Lisicki defeated Serena en route to that Wimbledon final, so maybe that’s the justification? It wouldn’t be much of one, but it’s something. Though a ceremonial diss is hardly cause for an international incident, this was still a curious decision by the AELTC.

You can’t blame the AELTC for Serena’s tough draw, however. That’s just bad luck.

Starting in the third round, Serena could face, in order, Alize Cornet (who beat her in Dubai), Eugenie Bouchard/Andrea Petkovic (both French Open semifinalists), Maria Sharapova (reigning French Open champ) and Simona Halep (French Open finalist). And then she’d have a final to deal with! You couldn’t handpick a tougher draw if you tried. Serena has the hardest possible matchup in each seeding category.

Maybe this isn’t a bad thing though. Serena’s last six Grand Slam losses have come to Garbine Muguruza, Ana Ivanovic, Sabine Lisicki, Sloane Stephens, Virginie Razzano and Ekaterina Makarova. None of those players were in the top 10 at the time. (Ivanovic at No. 14 was the highest ranked.) Over the same stretch of Slams, Serena is 12-0 against top-10 players. She isn’t losing to the heavyweights, she’s losing to the middleweights.

Serena Williams says she never looks at the draw. Maybe she should this time. With this murderer’s row, she’ll never be able to let her guard down. The Cornet loss is still fresh in her mind. The potential fourth-rounder against Bouchard would be a second Monday blockbuster hyped for days. And the buzz around a quarterfinal showdown with Sharapova would put the Bouchard hype to shame. This could be exactly what Serena needs.