Federer, Henin are top seeds for Wimbledon
June 20th, 2007
Wimbledon, England (Sports Network) - Roger Federer and Justine Henin have been installed as the top seeds at Wimbledon, which begins next Monday at the venerable All England Club.
Federer enters the third Grand Slam event of the year as the four-time defending champion, but comes off a disappointing loss to Rafael Nadal in the French Open final. The Swiss superstar will try to become the first man to win five straight Wimbledon crowns since the great Bjorn Borg accomplished the feat from 1976-80, and he will attempt to do so without a grass-court tuneup.
After the loss to Nadal in Paris, Federer skipped his usual Wimbledon tuneup in Halle, Germany and is not playing either of the two warmup tournaments this week.
Nadal has been seeded second at Wimbledon. The reigning three-time French Open champ reached the final at the All England Club last July, but lost to Federer in four sets.
American Andy Roddick, a two-time runner-up to Federer on the hallowed grounds of the London suburb, has been seeded third, followed by Novak Djokovic of Serbia, Chile's Fernando Gonzalez, Russia's Nikolay Davydenko, Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, Britain's Andy Murray, American James Blake and Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus.
Wimbledon seeds its players by using the ATP rankings. The top 32 ranked players are seeded, but rearranged on a surface-based system. For example, Berdych is ranked 11th by the ATP, but seeded seventh at Wimbledon.
Henin, coming off her third straight French Open crown, is the top women's player in the world and earned the top seed for Wimbledon despite never winning the title.
The Belgian star is a two-time runner-up, though, losing to France's Amelie Mauresmo in a three-set thriller last year and falling to American Venus Williams in another three-setter in 2001.
Russia's Maria Sharapova, the 2004 champion, is this year's second seed, while rising Serb star Jelena Jankovic is third. Jankovic is coming off a victory over Sharapova in the title match of the grass tuneup in Birmingham after losing to Henin in the French semifinals.
Mauresmo, who has struggled to recover from an appendectomy earlier this year, will defend her Wimbledon crown as this year's fourth seed. She will be followed by Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova and French runner-up Ana Ivanovic of Serbia.
Two-time Wimbledon champ Serena Williams is seeded seventh. She won the coveted crown in 2002 and 2003, beating sister Venus both times, then lost to Sharapova in the '04 final.
Russia's Anna Chakvetadze, 1997 champ Martina Hingis of Switzerland and Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia round out the top 10 seeds.
Venus Williams, the champion here in 2000, 2001 and 2005, is seeded 24th.
The draw is scheduled to be released on Friday.