Nadal: Wimbledon seedings formula is unfair
LONDON — Rafael Nadal has the utmost respect for Wimbledon’s host All-England Club, but he also believes the club’s unique rules, which elevated Roger Federer above him to the No. 2 seeding, are unfair.
“I respect the Wimbledon rules,” Nadal said at his pre-tournament news conference Saturday. “… If I believe that is fair or not, that’s another story. I really personally believe [it] is not. But I really respect the tournament so much. I really respect the history of this event. I really understand that they see the sport from another perspective. They want to do it by their own rules.”
The unfair “rules” Nadal was referring to is the special formula Wimbledon uses to develop seedings that sometimes depart from the standard ATP rankings, which serve as the seedings at all the other sanctioned tournaments, including the other three majors.
Wimbledon’s formula is a mathematically based calculation that gives extra weight to a player’s ATP record on grass then seeds in accordance with the adjusted results, elevating some players at the expense of those who don’t often play, or play poorly, on grass.
Lifting Federer to No. 2 has conspicuous negative consequences for Nadal this year. The No. 3 seed always faces the task of beating both men seeded above him — one in the semifinals, the other in the final. In addition, the draw also set up a potential second-round clash between Nadal and the always dangerous — and unpredictable — Nick Kyrgios, who has beaten Nadal at Wimbledon before.
“The system is the way it is,” Federer said Saturday. “It used to be different. … There’s not much we the players can add to the story, other than we just deal with it.
“At the end of the day, if you want to win the tournament, you got to go through all the players that are in front of you. And now that the draw is out, we move on.”
The formula used by Wimbledon was launched in 2001, following a few years during which the tournament committee’s seemingly arbitrary elevation of grass-court experts over higher-ranked clay-court specialists led to, among other things, a boycott of Wimbledon by some top Spanish players. While the new formula guaranteed transparency, Wimbledon is the only sanctioned tournament to take surface — rather than simple ranking — into account in seedings.
The main complaint about the formula now is that significant changes have created grass courts that play much more like hard courts these days than the sui generis, low-bounce, slippery grass courts of the past. Thus, making allowances for grass-court expertise is no longer necessary.
“We knew that the system was in place,” Federer said. “I guess the system is, you know, it rewards you for playing a lot on the grass, well on grass. I guess I benefited from that. That was not part of my plan the last few years. Just happens that this year I get bumped up. Kevin Anderson got bumped up.”
Defending Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic seems to support Nadal.
“It’s their rules, and you have to respect it, ” Djokovic said of this year’s seedings at an exhibition last week. “It’s a little bit surprising, to be honest.”
Nadal also appeared to send a message of protest to his own player association, the ATP.
“We [the ATP] are an organization that we give 2,000 [ranking] points to this event,” Nadal said. “[We’re] supposed to have something to say about [these] Wimbledon rules when we are giving them the maximum points possible in one event.”
Wimbledon has always insisted on retaining its autonomy as a Grand Slam event, while cooperating with the ATP and the other slams. The ATP did not protest when Wimbledon adopted its seeding formula.