WIMBLEDON 2011: Seeds Released (Serena #7, Clijsters Out)

Wimbledon starts on Monday, so the seedings have been released today, with the draw happening on Friday. The grass-court tournament is the only major to often drastically differ from the world rankings, and they have done so again.

Here are the men's singles seeds:

Gentlemen's Singles

1 Rafael NADAL (ESP) [1]
2 Novak DJOKOVIC (SRB) [2]
3 Roger FEDERER (SUI) [3]
4 Andy MURRAY (GBR) [4]
5 Robin SODERLING (SWE) [5]
6 Tomas BERDYCH (CZE) [6]
7 David FERRER (ESP) [7]
8 Andy RODDICK (USA) [8]
9 Gael MONFILS (FRA) [9]
10 Mardy FISH (USA) [10]
11 Jurgen MELZER (AUT) [11]
12 Jo-Wilfried TSONGA (FRA) [12]
13 Viktor TROICKI (SRB) [13]
14 Stanislas WAWRINKA (SUI) [14]
15 Gilles SIMON (FRA) [15]
16 Nicolas ALMAGRO (ESP) [16]
17 Richard GASQUET (FRA) [17]
18 Mikhail YOUZHNY (RUS) [18]
19 Michael LLODRA (FRA) [19]
20 Florian MAYER (GER) [20]
21 Fernando VERDASCO (ESP) [21]
22 Alexandr DOLGOPOLOV (UKR) [22]
23 Janko TIPSAREVIC (SRB) [23]
24 Juan Martin DEL POTRO (ARG) [24]
25 Juan Ignacio CHELA (ARG) [25]
26 Guillermo GARCIA-LOPEZ (ESP) [26]
27 Marin CILIC (CRO) [27]
28 David NALBANDIAN (ARG) [28]
29 Nikolay DAVYDENKO (RUS) [29]
30 Thomaz BELLUCCI (BRA) [30]
31 Milos RAONIC (CAN) [31]
32 Marcos BAGHDATIS (CYP) [32]

The main beneficiaries are Tsonga who moves from ATP #19 ranking to Seed #12 and Llodra who moves from ATP #25 ranking to Seed #19.

The women's singles seeds are even more interesting 

1 Caroline WOZNIACKI (DEN) [1]
2. Vera ZVONAREVA (RUS) [2]

3. Na LI (CHN) [3]
4. Victoria AZARENKA (BLR) [4]
5. Maria SHARAPOVA (RUS) [5]
6. Francesca SCHIAVONE (ITA) [6]
7. Serena WILLIAMS (USA) [7]
8. Petra KVITOVA (CZE) [8]
9. Marion BARTOLI (FRA) [9]
10. Samantha STOSUR (AUS) [10]
11. Andrea PETKOVIC (GER) [11]
12. Svetlana KUZNETSOVA (RUS) [12]
13. Agnieszka RADWANSKA (POL) [13]
14. Anastasia PAVLYUCHENKOVA (RUS) [14]
15. Jelena JANKOVIC (SRB) [15]
16. Julia GOERGES (GER) [16]
17. Kaia KANEPI (EST) [17]
18. Ana IVANOVIC (SRB) [18]
19. Yanina WICKMAYER (BEL) [19]
20. Shuai PENG (CHN) [20]
21. Flavia PENNETTA (ITA) [21]
22. Shahar PEER (ISR) [22]
23. Venus WILLIAMS (USA) [23]
24. Dominika CIBULKOVA (SVK) [24]
25. Daniela HANTUCHOVA (SVK) [25]
26. Maria KIRILENKO (RUS) [26]
27. Jarmila GAJDOSOVA (AUS) [27]
28. Ekaterina MAKAROVA (RUS) [28]
29. Roberta VINCI (ITA) [29]
30. Bethanie MATTEK-SANDS (USA) [30]
31. Lucie SAFAROVA (CZE) [31]
32. Tsvetana PIRONKOVA (BUL) [32]

The shocker is the removal of Kim Clijsters, who withdrew from the tournament with a re-injured ankle this morning. The 2010 defending champion Serena was seeded #8 but moved up to #7, despite her WTA #26 ranking. Venus, who is a 5-time champion was seeded #23 despite her WTA #33 ranking. This is an absolute travesty of a seeding for Venus. One year ago Serena was ranked #1 in the world and Venus was ranked #2 but the two have played only a handful of tournaments combined since then (Serena hasn't played at all).

Serbia Edges France 3-2 To Win 1st Davis Cup

The members of the Serbian team shaved their heads in celebration of their 3-2 win in the Davis Cup final over 9-time winner France. Viktor Troicki defeated Michael Llodra 6-2 6-2 6-3 and Novak Djokovic beat Gael Monfils 6-2 6-2 6-4 to achieve Serbia's come-from-behind win after the Llodra and Arnaud Clement won the doubles match on Saturday over Troicki and Nenad Zimonic to take a 2-1 lead.

Paris Masters: Federer v. Monfils, Soderling v. Llodra in Semifinals

Gael Monfils

Michael Llodra

It's the indoor hard-court ATP Masters tournament in the Bercy section of Paris and the French players Michael Llodra and Gael Monfils are playing some of their best tennis of the year. Monfils almost always does well before a French crowd, and lost in the finals of this tournament to Novak Djokovic last year in a 3-set thriller. This year he has already saved two match points against World Top 10 stalwart Fernando Verdasco and today beat World #4 Andy Murray 6-2 2-6 6-3 to reach the semifinals and face World #2 Roger Federer who is playing in his first semifinals at the Paris Masters.

In the other half of the draw is the amazing left-handed serve and volleyer Llodra who has been more well-known as a doubles player but who took out defending champion Djokovic in straight sets 7-6 6-2 and today defeated World #11 Nikolay Davydenko 7-5 6-1 to face World #5 Robin Soderling in the semifinals.

Could there be an all-French final on Sunday? Doubtful. I predict a Federer-Soderling final, with Federer winning his first Paris Masters title, and his 18th career Masters title overall.

The year's last ATP Tournament, the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, begin with the Top 8 players on Sunday November 21st in London where Rafael Nadal, Federer, Djokovic, Murray, Soderling, Tomas Berdych, David Ferrer and Andy Roddick have all qualified for the most prestigious and lucrative non-major tournament of the year.