Wimbledon 2010: Seedings and the Practice Courts

Wimbledon announced its seedings for the championships this year

1 Roger FEDERER (SUI)
2 Rafael NADAL (ESP)
3 Novak DJOKOVIC (SRB)
4 Andy MURRAY (GBR)
5 Andy RODDICK (USA)
6 Robin SODERLING (SWE)
7 Nikolay DAVYDENKO (RUS)
8 Fernando VERDASCO (ESP)
9 David FERRER (ESP)
10 Jo-Wilfried TSONGA (FRA)
11 Marin CILIC (CRO)
12 Tomas BERDYCH (CZE)
13 Mikhail YOUZHNY (RUS)
14 Juan Carlos FERRERO (ESP)
15 Lleyton HEWITT (AUS)
16 Jurgen MELZER (AUT)
17 Ivan LJUBICIC (CRO)
18 Sam QUERREY (USA)
19 Nicolas ALMAGRO (ESP)
20 Stanislas WAWRINKA (SUI)
21 Gael MONFILS (FRA)
22 Radek STEPANEK (CZE)
23 Feliciano LOPEZ (ESP)
24 John ISNER (USA)
25 Ivo KARLOVIC (CRO)
26 Marcos BAGHDATIS (CYP)
27 Thomaz BELLUCCI (BRA)
28 Gilles SIMON (FRA)
29 Ernests GULBIS (LAT)
30 Albert MONTANES (ESP)
31 Philipp KOHLSCHREIBER (GER)
32 Tommy ROBREDO (ESP)

The major departures from the current rankings are: Fed over Rafa even though Rafa is the current world #1, ARod over Sod and Playstation and Ferrer over Tsonga. The Rafa-Fed switch can be explained by Fed's record at Wimbledon as the defending champion, and is really not that significant at the end as they both get their own quarter. ARod's relatively high seeding is due to his status as the runner up last year, but he's probably crossing his finger's that he won't be assigned to Fed's quarter.

BTW, there is much weeping and gnashing of teeth over these departures from the ATP rankings. Some think Rafa is getting dissed. Rest assured, Wimbledon didn't cut a back room deal with the Federer camp: they employ this numerical formula (beautifully explained here): 100% of points from your ATP rankings + 75% of points from your best grass court performance in the past 12 months.

1 Serena WILLIAMS (USA)
2 Venus WILLIAMS (USA)
3 Caroline WOZNIACKI (DEN)
4 Jelena JANKOVIC (SRB)
5 Francesca SCHIAVONE (ITA)
6 Samantha STOSUR (AUS)
7 Agnieszka RADWANSKA (POL)
8 Kim CLIJSTERS (BEL)
9 Na LI (CHN)
10 Flavia PENNETTA (ITA)
11 Marion BARTOLI (FRA)
12 Nadia PETROVA (RUS)
13 Shahar PEER (ISR)
14 Victoria AZARENKA (BLR)
15 Yanina WICKMAYER (BEL)
16 Maria SHARAPOVA (RUS)
17 Justine HENIN (BEL)
18 Aravane REZAI (FRA)
19 Svetlana KUZNETSOVA (RUS)
20 Dinara SAFINA (RUS)
21 Vera ZVONAREVA (RUS)
22 Maria Jose MARTINEZ SANCHEZ (ESP)
23 Jie ZHENG (CHN)
24 Daniela HANTUCHOVA (SVK)
25 Lucie SAFAROVA (CZE)
26 Alisa KLEYBANOVA (RUS)
27 Maria KIRILENKO (RUS)
28 Alona BONDARENKO (UKR)
29 Anastasia PAVLYUCHENKOVA (RUS)
30 Yaroslava SHVEDOVA (KAZ)
31 Alexandra DULGHERU (ROU)
32 Sara ERRANI (ITA)

There are no major departures from the current rankings amongst the ladies. Safina gets no benefit from her grass court performance from last year since she's been off the tour due to injury. And, sadly, Demy is out of Wimbledon due to injury. Some might give Masha and Allez Bitch higher seedings but frankly both are on the comeback trail (Masha due to injury and Allez Bitch due to a return from retirement).

In other news, the Greatest Forehand Shanker is working on his inside out forehand.



He'll need that to avoid all those serves this Mallorcan Lefty likes to hit to his backhand.



Shrieka will need to hit a lot of running forehands as there's a whole new generation who've adopted her ball bashing style.