THE MUCH-awaited seeds for Wimbledon 2011 have been announced. Spaniard Rafael Nadal and Caroline Wozniacki from Denmark have been given top seed in Men's and Women's singles category respectively. The competition is all set to start on June 20 and end on July 3.
Djokovic, Federer, Murray, Soderling have been seeded second, third, fourth and fifth respectively in the men's category. Andy Roddick has been seeded eighth in the competition. Initially, Kim Clijsters had been seeded second in the women's category but after her withdrawal from the competition all players were pushed 1 seed above. Thus, Vera Zvonareva. Li Na, Victoria Azarenka, and Maria Sharapova have been seeded second, third, fourth, and fifth respectively. Serena Williams has been seeded seventh, and is making her comeback after a year-long layoff due to injury.
Though, Federer has been seeded third, it is for the first time that he has been ranked so low since 2003. He has won the Wimbledon title 6 times and has been seeded first most of the times and an occasional second in one outing, in 2009. The organisers have decided to hand over the top seed to Rafael Nodal, who lost to Frenchman, Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, in the Queen's grass court tournament last week. It would not be a big surprise if the top 4 seeds make it to the final four. The local favourite Andy Murray, seeded fourth, would be well supported by his home crowd who are longing for a British player to lift aloft the Wimbledon title. But will he play like a champion and win the title that even Nadal says will one day belong to Murray?
When it comes to Women's tennis, the competition is wide open, with Caroline Wozniacki being given top seeding. There is an intense rivalry between the players in the women's circuit. The likes of Williams sisters, Francesca Schiavone, Marion Bartoli, Samantha Stosur and host of other players could give the top 5 seeds a run for their money. 2010 Wimbledon champion, Serena Williams, could make a fairytale comeback by winning the elusive title. Will we see a rejuvenated Serena push aside emerging competition?
Given the draw of the Wimbledon 2011, we are likely to witness some mouth watering clashes as witnessed in recent years. One of the most epic matches ever recorded took place last year when John Isner and Nicolas Mahut played an astonishing tennis match, which lasted for 11 hours 5 minutes, with John Isner being the victor. The score line read 6–4, 3–6, 6–7(7–9), 7–6(7–3), 70–68.
Given the sheer quality of top tennis talent that will be on display at Wimbledon, will we witness marathon matches and closely-fought battles? Will Wimbledon 2011 throw up new champions? Or will class and experience, once again, will be the difference between a winner and a challenger?
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