Seeding Rafael Nadal fifth will make Wimbledon less competitive

The Wimbledon is a prime event on the Tennis calendar and a prime event must be a competitive event. It does not require an expert to tell you that.

Rafael Nadal has been seeded fifth at the event despite of his record 8^th title win at the French Open. The Spaniard was kept out of top flight tennis for seven months because of a knee injury. It has taken great effort, dedication and skill to make a comeback from that injury but this is perhaps not the reward that he was hoping for. There might be a great deal of logic behind how the system of seeding players for the tournament works but to the common tennis fan, it will be quite a disappointment when he is forced to watch a potential final as early as the quarter-finals.

The Wimbledon holds the right to decide seeds for the tournament but they rarely make a deviation from the ATP rankings. This has been the case this year as well. The first five seeds reflect the top five ATP ranks. This means that Nadal can meet seven-time champion Roger Federer, Andy Murray or world number one Novak Djokovic in the quarter finals. The French Open final was a damp squib because Novak Djokovic met Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals and that match truly deserved to be a final.

Given the fact that the Wimbledon is the only grand slam which formulates its own seeding independent of the ATP rankings depending on a three stage process that takes into consideration grass court performances of last two years, there was scope for some redressal in the situation.

That redressal was prevented by the fact that Nadal suffered a shock second round exit at Wimbledon 2012. An additional factor that could have played a role was the incident that happened in 2000 when a number of Spanish players protested by boycotting the tournament when Wimbledon did not seed them inspite of their deserved rankings. Wimbledon has developed a much more transparent formula of seeding players since and they do minimal tinkering with the ATP rankings.

David Ferrer is variously described as an ‘honest’, ‘humble’ and ‘dedicated’ tennis player and he is indeed all those things but most will not hesitate in admitting that he is no Rafael Nadal. The Spaniard is a two-time Wimbledon Champion whereas David Ferrer has never made it big on the grass court. In fact the French Open was his first grand slam final and he has never went beyond the quarter finals at the Wimbledon. In such a situation, Nadal should have been seeded fourth at the tournament ahead of David Ferrer.

The affair has drawn strong reactions for all quarters calling it a move against common sense. Brad Gilbert, former coach of Andy Murray and Andre Agassi, was a lot more precise when he called the entire affair a joke. John McEnroe called it ‘totally wrong’ expressing bitter disappointment with the fact that a premature clash with one of the top three seeds will make the competition less competitive in its final stages. Andy Murray on the other hand expressed a resigned attitude. He said, “I know there will be a lot of interest in the draw this year as Rafael Nadal looks like being seeded fifth but as a player you can’t get too obsessed about the draw.”

While there are these many disadvantages of the announced seeds, the positive aspect of it is that we’ll get to see a stellar contest very soon in the competition. Whenever the match is contested one can be sure of the fact that the better player will progress. The kind of form and skill Rafa has exhibited in the last few months, it is unlikely to make a difference to him as to who he meets in the quarter finals. Meanwhile, one can only hope that David Ferrer lives up to the seed that he has been given for the good of the competition.