Wimbledon: Henman Left Hoping for the Least of Four Evils

Tim Henman, seeded No6 for this year's Wimbledon, may be hoping he ends up in Rafael Nadal's quarter when the draw is made at the All England Club today, thus avoiding the top three seeds Roger Federer, Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt, all of whom have been champions or finalists on the SW19 grass.

Unlike the three other grand slam tournaments, Wimbledon does not seed strictly according to the ATP's current rankings and has devised a formula for the men whereby a player's recent record on grass is taken into account.

This was introduced four years ago after consultation between the All England Club and the men's governing body. Previously a seeding committee had decided where to place the leading players in the draw but this was eventually deemed to be too subjective, with a number of clay-court players boycotting Wimbledon in 2001.

The formula takes into account a player's current ranking points and then adds a percentage of points won on grass over the past two years. Nothing else is taken into consideration.

This year's two biggest beneficiaries of the formula were France's Sébastien Grosjean, who was lifted 17 places to No9 seed, and Mario Ancic of Croatia, who was moved from 21st to 10th. Both were semi-finalists last year, with Ancic defeating Henman in straight sets in the quarter-finals.

Henman, currently ranked No9, had his place in the top eight seeds secured on Tuesday when Andre Agassi pulled out of the tournament for the second successive year because of back problems.

Greg Rusedski just failed to make the 32 seedings and so joins the list of dangerous floaters which will include Australia's Mark Philippoussis, the Wimbledon runner-up in 2003, and Ivo Karlovic of Croatia, who was beaten in the final of the Stella Artois championship by Roddick.

Australia's Alicia Molik, ranked No9, withdrew from Wimbledon yesterday having not recovered sufficiently from an inner ear infection. Lindsay Davenport is seeded to meet Russia's Maria Sharapova, the reigning champion, in the final, with Belgium's Justine Henin-Hardenne, the French Open champion, seeded No7. The women's seeding follows the current WTA rankings.

Top 10 seedings

Men's singles

1 Roger Federer (Switz)

2Andy Roddick (US)

3Lleyton Hewitt (Aus)

4Rafael Nadal (Sp)

5Marat Safin (Rus)

6Tim Henman (GB)

7Guillermo Cañas (Arg)

8Nikolay Davydenko (Rus)

9Sébastien Grosjean (Fr)

10 Mario Ancic (Cro)

Women's singles

1 Lindsay Davenport (US)

2 Maria Sharapova (Rus)

3 Amélie Mauresmo (Fr)

4 Serena Williams (US)

5 Svetlana Kuznetsova (Rus)

6 Elena Dementieva (Rus)

7 Justine Henin-Hardenne (Bel)

8 Nadia Petrova (Rus)

9 Anastasia Myskina (Rus)

10 Patty Schnyder (Switz)