British No 1 Johanna Konta seeded 22nd; Simona Halep leads seedings as World No 1
Thursday 28 June 2018 15:49, UK
Serena Williams will begin her bid for an eighth Wimbledon title as the 25th seed after being handed a discretional promotion by the All England Club.
The 36-year-old is ranked world No 183 as she continues her comeback from giving birth to her first child last year but Wimbledon officials have discretion to seed a player regardless of ranking and are understood to have come to a decision at a meeting on Tuesday.
Williams, who holds an Open-era record of 23 Grand Slam victories, made her competitive return to the game in March at Indian Wells before an encouraging run to the French Open fourth round was ended by a right pectoral injury.
Dominika Cibulkova is the player to miss out on a place in the top-32 seeds as a result of the decision and the Slovakian player made clear her feelings about the issue to the media on Tuesday.
"Why should I not be seeded if I have the right to be?" asked Cibulkova, who is ranked No 32, after her defeat to Angelique Kerber at the Nature Valley International in Eastbourne.
"It would be different if I was No 6 seed and they put me at No 10, you know," added Cibulkova, whose own ranking peaked at No 4 in 2014.
"But it's just not fair if there is a player [who misses out] and it's me now. I have the right and I should be seeded and if they put her in front of me then I will just lose my spot that I am supposed to have. I don't know if something like this ever happened before."
Williams first won at Wimbledon in 2002 while the American claimed the last of her seven titles at the All England Club in 2016 with victory against Angelique Kerber before she missed out on last year's tournament. Wednesday's announcement means Williams will not meet a seed before the third round.
World No 1 Simona Halep, who won her maiden Grand Slam title at the French Open earlier this month, will be the top seed while Caroline Wozniacki, defending champion Garbine Muguruza and Sloane Stephens make up the top four.
Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova is seeded eighth, while five-time holder Venus Williams is ninth and 2004 winner Maria Sharapova is the 24th seed.
Johanna Konta will once again lead British hopes in the women's draw and the British No 1 will hope to improve on her impressive run to the semi-finals last year.
The 27-year-old is seeded 22nd and will hope to build on her positive performances during the grass-court campaign which have included a run to the Nature Valley Open final in Nottingham.
The draw for the women's singles will take place on Friday.
We will keep you up to date with all the news ahead of Wimbledon including our live blogs once the action gets underway on July 2.
Our next tennis action comes from the German Open in Hamburg. Watch the action live on Sky Sports Arena from Monday, July 23 from 10am.
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