Every year at Wimbledon there is a pre tournament players party and this year is no different. We came across a great picture of Ana Ivanovic with Virgin boss Richard Branson. Im wondering if Branson actually knows who she is or just another tactical publicity stunt.
The AELTC has released the seedings for the 2009 Championships. They follow the ranking almost exactly, except Maria Sharapova has been seeded #24 despite her current ranking of 59. There is no disputing Sharapova’s grass court prowess, having won the title in 2004 and made the Semifinals on other occasions, and the All England Club clearly wanted to reward her for her past success. Why then, was the same criteria not applied to other players?
Venus Williams has won the Wimbledon title 5 times, and Serena Williams has won it 2 times, and yet they were not elevated and are both seeded behind Dinara Safina, who has never been past the third round at Wimbledon in 6 attempts. And what of Amelie Mauresmo? She has nearly identical grass court credentials to Sharapova, having won the title herself in 2006, but her seeding was not elevated from #17.
Personally, I don’t think that rankings should be changed at all for seedings. Players earn a ranking over the course of 52 weeks, which should not be able to be changed on a whim. At the same time, if they are going to alter seedings, then they should apply the same criteria to all players. They should not pick and choose which players they want to reward. This will certainly be a major topic of contention as the Championships get underway this Monday.
Full seedings may be found here: http://aeltc2009.wimbledon.org/en_GB/about/pdf/2009_seeding.pdf
Fresh off his first French Open title, Roger Federer considers himself the man to beat at Wimbledon.
A day after beating Robin Soderling in the final at Roland Garros, Federer says he’s looking forward to trying to claim a sixth championship at the All England Club from June 22-July 5.
“I do think I’m the favorite, actually, with all the success I’ve had,” Federer said Monday.
His run of five consecutive Wimbledon titles ended with a five-set loss to Rafael Nadal in last year’s final.
Nadal pulled out of this week’s grass-court tournament at Queen’s Club, citing knee problems.
Referring to Wimbledon, Nadal said: “I hope I can be ready to compete by then.”
Federer expects to see his nemesis at the All England Club.
“It seems like it’s not 100 percent serious, his knee injury. I only wish him the best and I hope it’s not true that he will miss Wimbledon. I think it’s a lot of speculation at the moment,” Federer said. “He wasn’t taping his knees here in Paris. He seemed fine, [from] what I saw, anyway. I’ve played him so many times, I can tell when he’s in pain and when he’s not.”
Federer said his back feels OK — he took a six-week break this year because it was bothering him — but he also said he was considering withdrawing from the grass-court tournament in Halle, Germany, that began Monday.
As for his game, Federer figures he can keep improving, particularly on grass and hard courts, “when I can go for my shots more.”
He already has won five championships at Wimbledon, five at the U.S. Open and three at the Australian Open. Now — after having lost to Nadal in the three previous French Open finals — Federer looks forward to being the defending champion at Roland Garros for the first time.
“I’m sure I’m going to enjoy Paris even more in the future,” he said, “because the pressure is off.”
