Serena seeded for Wimbledon, Murray misses out

LONDON: The spectre of seven-time Wimbledon champion Serena Williams facing world No. 1 Simona Halep in the Wimbledon first round was removed as the American was named as the 25th seed.

Debate has raged over whether the 36-year-old, 23-time Grand Slam champion, who is down at 183 in the WTA rankings following maternity leave, should be bumped up into a seeded position.

The decision by the All England Club committee means Williams, winner in 2016 but absent last year because of pregnancy, will avoid big names until at least the third round.

Halep is top seed in the women’s singles with 2017 champion Garbine Muguruza at three, while defending men’s champion Roger Federer is number one seed despite Spaniard Rafael Nadal taking over as world No. 1 this week.

When the seedings committee met on Tuesday, the issue of whether to break from the current WTA rankings, the usual criteria for seeding the women’s draw, and elevate Williams was top of their agenda.

It reserves the right to change the women’s seedings to “produce a balanced draw” and Williams, whose protected ranking does not guarantee a seeding, clearly is a special case.

At the French Open last month, when her ranking was 451, she was not seeded and came up against Australian 17th seed Ashleigh Barty in the second round, winning in three sets.

She reached the fourth round before pulling out shortly before her match against Maria Sharapova of Russia.

While many have said Williams, who has played only seven competitive matches since giving birth to daughter Alexis Olympia last September, should not be penalised for taking time out to start a family, others say seeding her is unfair.

One of them, Slovakian former Australian Open finalist Dominika Cibulkova, is the player most disadvantaged by the decision to seed Williams, as she is 32nd in the rankings and would have taken the last seeded spot.