Wimbledon 2011 Men’s Singles Draw: Seeding

Wimbledon 2011 Men’s Singles Draw: Seeding

At Wimbledon the seeding for the Gentlemen’s singles draw is NOT based solely on the ATP rankings. This year the ATP rankings as at June 13 will be used to calculate the seeding for the 2011 Wimbledon men’s event.

At each of the 4 Grand Slam tournaments there are 32 seeds. In 2002 the ATP and Wimbledon made an agreement to enable the Wimbledon seeding committee to alter the usual seeding procedure to permit a grass court seeding system to reflect each individual player’s grass court achievements.

The agreement aimed to ensure that this special exception for a grass court seeding was objective and transparent for all concerned. This system still allocates the seedings from highest to lowest (i.e. No.1 to No.32), according to who has the highest total number of points. The system used to determine the Wimbledon grass court seeding is:

* Step 1: Count the ATP ranking points of each player as at 13 June 2011;
* Step 2: Add all of the points that a player has earned in any grass court events in the past 12 months on top of that; and
* Step 3: Add another %75 of a player’s BEST grass court result in the 12 months BEFORE that to make a new total number of points.

To illustrate how this system works OCA will have to use what happened for the seeding for the 2010 Wimbledon event. This is because to complete Step 1 we have to wait until this coming Monday for the rankings to be released. For Step 2 and Step 3 the results of all of the grass court tournaments over the next two weeks need to be known. This can only be done upon completion of the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany, the AEGON Championships in London, Great Britain, the UNICEF Open at s’Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands and the AEGON International at Eastbourne in Great Britain.

The 2010 Wimbledon example turned the World No.1 at that time, Rafael Nadal into the No.2 seed using this special Wimbledon system. Nadal had 8,745 ATP ranking points on 14 June 2010, which you add 45 points for his quarter final result at the 2010 Queens Club tournament in London.

Nadal did not play any other grass court tournament in the preceding 12 months. So for step 1 and step 2 above, we add 8,745 and 45 (=8,790). Then for step 3 above, we add 1,500 points because that is 75% of 2,000, which was Nadal’s singles best grass court result in the 12 months before that (Nadal won Wimbledon in 2008). Therefore, Nadal’s total number of points for his grass court seeding is 8,790 + 1,500 = 10,290.

Roger Federer became the No.1 seed for Wimbledon 2010 using this system because his points total was higher than anyone else. Federer had 8,525 ATP ranking points on 14 June 2010, to which you add 150 points for his runner-up result at the 2010 Halle, Germany event and 2,000 points for winning the 2009 Wimbledon title. Federer’s best result the year before that was 1,400 for being the runner-up at the 2008 Wimbledon event. 75% of 1,400 points is 1,050, therefore, we add 8,525 + 150 + 2,000 + 1,050 to make Federer’s total number of points for his grass court seeding – 11,725 compared to Nadal’s 10,290.

Do you think Wimbledon making it’s own seeding is a good thing or disrespectful to the other 3 Grand Slam tournaments and to the players who work hard for the previous 12 months to earn their ranking and subsequent seeding benefits?

Pictured above is the 24-year-old Andy Murray setting the ball in place during his service action in the “Trophy Position” before propelling himself at the ball against Rafael Nadal during the semi finals at Roland Garros 2011. The 1.9m Murray has made the semi finals for the past 2 years in a row at Wimbledon and after his best result to date at Roland Garros this year is poised to go one step further and make his first Wimbledon final on home soil.

Murray was runner-up at the 2008 US Open and for the past two years running at the Australian Open. The Scot achieved his career high ranking to date of No.2 on 11 August 2009 and is the current World No.4.

Murray has defeated Nadal 4 times thus far and twice at Grand Slam singles events. Murray has a winning record against Roger Federer 8-6 and beaten Novak Djokovic 3 times so far. He has beaten the world’s best before can he perform better than the Grand Slam champions at Wimbledon this year?