LONDON: Defending champion Rafael Nadal and women's world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki were named top seeds for next week's Wimbledon Championships here Wednesday. Tournament officials mirrored the current world rankings for their top five seeds in the men's and women's singles, with Nadal ahead of Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Sweden's Robin Soderling. In the women's draw Wozniacki heads the list from Belgium's Kim Clijsters, world No. 3 Vera Zvonareva, newly crowned French Open champion Li Na from China and Victoria Azarenka from Belarus. Clijsters, however, withdrew later Wednesday because of a foot injury. Defending women's champion Serena Williams has been seeded eighth, meaning she will not face a top-eight player until the quarterfinals. Serena is bidding to clinch a hat trick of Wimbledon crowns after a hellish 12 months beset by serious health problems and a foot injury. Serena's sister Venus is lurking down at 24th. The 29-year-old Serena required surgery on her foot after slicing it open on broken glass in a Munich restaurant last July and then needed emergency treatment in February for potentially life threatening blood clots on her lungs. She returned to action this week at Eastbourne after taking a wildcard. Speaking on the eve of the draw 18-time Grand Slam champion Chris Evert said she expected both Williams sisters to be amongst the top 16 seeds at Wimbledon. “I think it's got to be a given that they're both seeded the top 16,” Evert said on a conference call. “Venus has the best record of anybody in the whole draw as far as winning Wimbledon. “My heavens, these two women have dominated Wimbledon the last 10 years.” The sisters, who between them have won nine of the last 11 singles titles at Wimbledon, have been upgraded at the discretion of the All England Club to ensure “a balanced draw”. The rest of the seedings follow the WTA rankings with Denmark's world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki topping the draw. Belgium's Kim Clijsters is seeded two although she has doubts over her fitness after losing in the first round of the Den Bosch Open Tuesday to Italian Romina Oprandi. American Andy Roddick has earned the eight seeding spot despite a current ranking of 10 which means he will avoid the “big four” until the quarterfinals.
