London: Rafael Nadal of Spain was on Wednesday named second seed for the upcoming 2018 Wimbledon tennis tournament, despite currently holding the top spot in the ATP rankings, due to the special classification system used by the English Grand Slam event.
Switzerland’s Roger Federer, world No.2 and eight-time Wimbledon champion, was named first seed for the grass court tournament, which starts July 2, as Wimbledon gives extra weight to a player’s successes on grass in the previous two years, reports Efe.
Nadal, a two-time Wimbledon champion and 17-time Grand Slam champion, has arrived in London for the tournament after winning his 11th French Open title on June 10.
Marin Cilic of Croatia is to be third seed, followed by Alexander Zverev of Germany and Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina.
Meanwhile, Spaniards Roberto Bautista, Pablo Carreno and Fernando Verdasco are seeded 14th, 21st and 32nd respectively.
To determine the seeds, Wimbledon takes a player’s ATP ranking points and adds 100 percent of all points earned on grass in the previous year and 75 percent of the points earned in their best grass court tournament in the year before that.
The top 10 seeds at Wimbledon are as follows:
1. Roger Federer (Switzerland, world No. 2)
2. Rafael Nadal (Spain, world No. 1)
3. Marin Cilic (Croatia, world No. 5)
4. Alexander Zverev (Germany, world No. 3)
5 Juan Martin del Potro (Argentina, world No. 4)
6. Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria, world No. 6)
7. Dominic Thiem (Austria, world No. 7)
8. Kevin Anderson (South Africa, world No. 8)
9. John Isner (US, world No. 10)
10. David Goffin (Belgium, world No. 9).(IANS)
