Norrie’s seeding

BRITISH No 1 Cameron Norrie finds it “pretty cool” to be seeded ninth at this year’s Wimbledon but knows it does not guarantee a deep run at his home major.

The ranking of the 26-year-old has impressively risen over the last 12 months with victory at Indian Wells in October a key milestone.

Norrie was seeded 29th at the All England Club in 2021 and it meant he faced Roger Federer in the third round, with the Swiss great triumphing in four sets.

While the world No 12 will not take anything for granted, he knows being a high seed should help his chances of making the second week of a grand slam, having reached the last 32 on five occasions.

“It’s great. Being seeded helps,” Norrie said after a 6-4 6-2 win over Brandon Nakashima at the Rothesay International Eastbourne.

“I will take it one match at a time and for me I have still not reached the second week so it would be nice to do that. I guess the seeding helps and that is a result of winning matches and stringing them together, so I will take that.

“Being ninth is pretty cool and pretty crazy. It all happened pretty quickly, getting up there, which has been a lot of fun but it still means nothing. You still have to win the matches.”

Norrie is up three places compared to his world ranking due to the absence of Russian and Belarussian athletes at SW19 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

World No 1 Daniil Medvedev and Russian compatriot Andrey Rublev are both missing from the Championships, while world No 2 Alexander Zverev is also out due to injury.

Meanwhile, Emma Raducanu will be seeded 10th.

The US Open champion, who has been battling injury in the build-up to the tournament, advances one place from her world ranking due to the absence of world No 6 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus.

Wimbledon announced in April that it would ban players from Russia and Belarus.

It will be an emotional return for Raducanu, who burst on to the world platform by becoming the youngest UK female player to reach the last 16 stage of the event.

She beat Vitalia Diatchenko, Marketa Vondrousova and Sorana Cirstea before retiring against Ajla Tomljanovic in the fourth round.