Wimbledon Dumps Their Grass Court Seeding System

Wimbledon’s often-controversial seeding system for the men’s event has officially been scraped, the tournament announced today.

Since the 2002 event, Wimbledon has been using a formula to seed the men’s weighted on recent grass results. Prior to 2002, a committee determined the seedings until a player revolt forced the tournament’s hand.

With the grass season wiped out, using a formula next year could have created some issues among the players.

Now, the tournament will follow the other three Grand Slams and their own women’s event by using the rankings.

The tournament said in a statement: “Given the quality of competition, entertainment and modern grass courts, following detailed discussion with the player groups, the AELTC has decided that the grass court seeding formula used since 2002 has served its time, and from The Championships 2021 seeding for the Gentlemen’s singles draw will be based solely on ranking. There will be no change to the method of seeding for the Ladies’ singles draw.”