Djokovic, Barty top seeds at SW19

Wimbledon, on Wednesday, announced defending champion Novak Djokovic and Ashleigh Barty as the men’s and women’s top seeds respectively, for the 2021 edition of The Championships, which gets underway next Monday.

The upcoming tournament will be the first after the Wimbledon organisers decided to do away with their unique seeding formula for men, used to re-order the top 32 seeds in the main draw by giving extra weight to grass-court performances during a two-year period leading up to the competition. The seedings are in line with the current ATP rankings, aligning the tournament with the three other Majors.

As a result, Roger Federer, the eight-time champion and 2019 runner-up, will be seeded seventh, behind the likes of Daniil Medvedev (second seed), Alexander Zverev (fifth) and Andrey Rublev (sixth), who have zero grass-court titles and not a single appearance beyond the fourth round at SW19. In 2019, Federer, then ranked No. 3 in the world, was elevated as the second seed in place of Rafael Nadal, the World No. 2.

The women’s section broadly follows the WTA rankings, but has been tweaked on occasion to produce a “balanced draw”. In 2018, Serena Williams, despite being ranked 183, was given a seeding of 25. But there was no need to do so this time, with the seven-time singles champion qualifying as the seventh seed.

Simona Halep, the 2019 winner, is the second seed while two-time champion Petra Kvitova is 11th.