Nadal right to be unhappy at a dated seeding system
IT REALLY is time for Wimbledon to change its seeding system, as the formula they use is past its prime.
How Rafael Nadal can be dropped down to third, from second in the world rankings, and Kevin Anderson gets bumped up four places to No 4 is illogical.
The system was brought in when there was a big difference between clay and grass, and so the gaps in the draw needed addressing.
But now at Wimbledon they have changed the surface, it is much slower and higher-bouncing than it used to be and plays like a hard court. There is no reason to separate it based on grass form.
As far as Nadal is concerned, he has won it twice and came very close last year to winning the tournament, because if he’d come through against Novak Djokovic in that five-set semi-final, you would have fancied him in the final.
And he’s just won the French Open and demolished everybody and is still seeded three. It just doesn’t make sense.
And then you see Anderson at four, and as much as Kevin has had some good Wimbledons, he got beaten in the second round at Queen’s and has hardly played because he’s been injured.
He is not playing like the No 4 in the world on grass, and there is no way he should have been pushed up to fourth for the seedings at Wimbledon.
Sometimes the computer may have spat out those seedings but it isn’t taking into account what is going on at the moment.
The fact that Wimbledon feels the need to apply a different rule — just like they do with the men’s doubles going to five sets — suggests an insecurity complex, that it has to be different to be No 1. It doesn’t, Wimbledon will always be No1.
But the seedings are really important and have shown that this year — Nadal (pictured) has the toughest draw of the top guys and may not have had that if he’d been seeded two. He has every right to feel aggrieved.
In the second round he could play Nick Kyrgios, which should be a blockbuster game. Kyrgios is exciting because you never know what he is going to do but got to the point of being dangerous at Queen’s when he threw his racket out of the court. It could have hurt a kid, and he’s lucky it didn’t. Although it’s hard not to think that one of the top three of Roger Federer, Nadal and Djokovic will win the men’s singles, there is more substance to some of the guys below them. Stefanos Tsitsipas and Dominic Thiem are the two guys that look more ready now to challenge them. When trying to pick a winner, Federer is probably as wellprepared as anybody in the draw, having just won Halle for the 10th time, and his appetite for the game is simply mindboggling. But for me, Djokovic is my winner this year. He is awesome on the grass. The only thing I would be questioning is that when he lost in Paris, no one heard from him for three or four days. I don’t know what was up with that, but everything seems fine now and he has a tremendous draw.