Marcos Baghdatis and Tomas Berdych have benefited from Wimbledon's unique seedings policy this year after strong showings in 2007.
The seedings for next week's grasscourt grand slam, released by the All England Club in London yesterday, have Cypriot Baghdatis seeded 10th compared to a world ranking of 25.
Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus returns the ball during his match against Robin Soderling of Sweden at the ABN AMRO tennis tournament in Rotterdam February 19, 2008.(Xinhua/Reuters File Photo)
Czech Berdych is seeded 11th despite an ATP ranking of 19.
Baghdatis reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon last year where he lost to Novak Djokovic in a five-set marathon. Berdych also reached the last eight, losing to Rafael Nadal.
Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic reacts after losing a point against Rafael Nadal of Spain during their semifinal match at the Sony Ericsson Open tennis tournament in Key Biscayne, Florida April 4, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters File Photo)
Wimbledon is the only grand slam tournament which does not stick strictly to the ATP ranking list in deciding seedings. In allocating the 32 slots the seeding committee takes into account performances on grass over a two-year period.
Five-time champion Roger Federer, who extended his winning run on grass to 59 matches when he defended his Halle title last week, is seeded one, while French Open champion Ana Ivanovic, is top seed in the women's singles after taking over first place in the rankings.
Nadal, runner-up at Wimbledon the past two years, is No. 2 with Djokovic, the Australian Open champion, at No. 3. They are followed by No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko, No. 5 David Ferrer, No. 6 and two-time finalist Andy Roddick and No. 7 David Nalbandian.
Richard Gasquet and James Blake swap spots, with the Frenchman at No. 8 ahead of the American at No. 9.
Lleyton Hewitt, the 2002 champion, is seeded at 20, seven higher than his world ranking, but there is no seeding for Croatia's Mario Ancic, a former semifinalist and the last man to beat Federer at Wimbledon.
The women's seedings have stuck rigidly to the top 32 in the world rankings as the seeding committee found no special cases for grasscourt performances.
Ivanovic is followed by fellow Serb Jelena Jankovic at No. 2, former champion Maria Sharapova at No. 3, No. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova, No. 5 Elena Dementieva, No. 6 and two-time winner Serena Williams and defending champion and four-time winner Venus Williams at No. 7.
The draw will be held tomorrow.
(Agencies via Shanghai Daily June 19, 2008)