Wimbledon 2019: Rafael Nadal slams tournament organizers over unique seeding criteria

Prominent Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal has lashed out at the organizers of the Wimbledon Championships, criticizing the tournament’s seeding system, which differs from the rest of the Grand Slam events.

The 18-time major title winner Nadal complained that Wimbledon bosses ignore players’ world rankings while seeding them for the biggest grass-court competition of the year.

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World number two Nadal, who won a record-breaking 12th French Open title several weeks ago, is seeded third at the 2019 Wimbledon Championships, behind Serbia’s Novak Djokovic and Swiss tennis legend Roger Federer.

Nadal’s seeding number has put him on the same side of the draw as Djokovic meaning that the principle rivals can face each other in the semi-final.

"Wimbledon is the only tournament of the year where they do whatever they want in that sense. Whatever it is, whether I'm two or three, I'll have to be at my best and will fight to win the games I'm involved in," Nadal said.

"The only thing that doesn't seem right is that it's only Wimbledon that does this. It's not just for me, it's for other players too. They don't respect the status that players have earned throughout the season."

Wimbledon’s seeding formula, which differs from other big tennis events, includes players’ world rankings as of June 24 and adds points they have earned over the past 12 months. Points taken at the grass-court tournaments during the year are also taken into account while calculating athletes’ rankings at Wimbledon.

Sunday’s victory at the Halle grass-court event put Federer ahead of Nadal despite the Swiss being ranked lower than the Spaniard by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).