It has been the talk of the circuit during the last week, who will Wimbledon seed number two behind Roger Federer at the All England Club Championships which begin on Monday. The seedings were announced on Wednesday afternoon in London and that privilege has gone to Rafa Nadal.

The most important factor surrounding the number two seeding is that it definitely places you in the bottom half of the draw, away from the top seed and three times champion, Roger Federer. Wimbledon are at liberty to choose who is seeded where, despite the ATP rankings and last year caused a stir when they seeded Roddick number two even though he was not the number two player in the world.

Wimbledon also consider previous records on grass and it was wondered whether Rafa's best result of the third round would stand against him in the seedings. But he is the clear world number two and former Wimbledon champion, Lleyton Hewitt was in no doubt the Spaniard deserved the seeding. "Nadal is No. 2 for a reason, and, you know, he probably deserves to be the No. 2 seed, I think," said Hewitt.

The other contender for the number two seed, Andy Roddick has been seeded three, with Nalbandian at four, Ljubicic five, and the 2002 Champion, Lleyton Hewitt at six.

In his final preparations for Wimbledon, Rafa will play two exhibition singles matches at the Marsh Classic on Thursday and Friday. Held at the Hurlingham Club in London, Rafa will play against Mark Philippoussis and Jarkko Nieminen to fine tune his game before opening his Wimbledon campaign on Tuesday.
Good Luck Rafa!

Written by: Kate Flory

© 2005 PREMIER ALLIANCES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED