WIMBLEDON 2009: Nadal, Safina seeded #1; Monfils exits

Gael Monfils injured his wrist and will skip Wimbledon
for the second consecutive year

2008 Wimbledon champion and World #1 Rafael Nadal is seeded #1 at the 2009 Wimbledon Championships, which start Monday June 22 in London. Dinara Safina who has never been past the third round at the tournament but is currently World #1 and has lost in 3 Grand Slam finals in the last year, is also seeded #1.

Nadal is seeded #1 ahead of World #2 and 5-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer who he beat in last year's final; a match that John McEnroe called the best tennis match he had ever seen and sportwriter Jon Wertheim has written a book about called Strokes of Genius.

Safina is seeded #1 ahead of 2-time Wimbledon champion Serena Williams at #2 and 5-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams at #3. The All-Englnad Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club basically followed the world rankings for the Top 10 seeds on the women's side (and only 8 of the Top 10 seeds on the Men's side, with Fernando Verdasco and Gilles Simon swapping places at #7 and #8).