Seed

Seed, also known as seeding, is the arrangement of players based on their ranking in a tournament.

The top players entered in every tennis tournament will receive a seed. Some tournaments only give out eight seeds, while the majors give out 32. Not only is the seed a badge of honor for players when they look at the draw, but it is a quick way to show casual fans who the best players are in the tournament.

Seeding is usually figured out a week or two beforehand, so the current rankings might not always show in the same light. Each tournament has the ability to seed mess with the seeds if they wish, although most view the most fair and non-controversial way is to simply use the ATP and WTA rankings.

Having a seed is beneficial for those playing in tournaments that are not exactly 32, 64, or 128 players deep. In those tournaments, every single player needs to play the same amount of matches. If the draw is different than those three numbers, a seed might get a first-round bye.

That bye can come in handy in tennis tournaments. Getting a day or two off to rest the body is a major advantage. There is always a chance that the opponent is forced to play a long match the round before as well.

The seeding system is in place because tournaments want to have the potential for great matches to mostly occur near the end. The best way to do that is to separate the best players in the early rounds. No one wants to see the two best players randomly play each other in the first or second round. Although it would make for some compelling television, tournaments lose the opportunity to see one of those players play several more matches.

Example: the Roger Federer-Novak Djokovic 2019 Wimbledon Final. That match would not be nearly as memorable if the top two seeds faced each other in the first week of the tournament.

Seeding also keeps tournaments as fair as possible. There is just too much luck involved if there is no seeding. Draws as-is can certainly open up if seeds lose in the early rounds, but there is still an equal opportunity to face challenging players after the first couple of rounds. It’s the fairest way to have a tennis tournament, while still allowing for some variance.

At the grand slams, the 32 seeds are all separated so that they do not play another seed until the third round. If everyone takes care of business, the third round will consist entirely of seeds.

Different tournaments will do different things with the seeds as well. It normally does not work exactly like tournaments in other sports, such as the NCAA basketball tournament in March. If it was set up that way, the #1 seed would always potentially face the #32 seed in a Grand slam in the third round.

The same would go for the #2 seed and the #31 seed, the #3 seed and the #30 seed, etc. In most cases, only the top four seeds are separated into their own quarter of a draw, and then everything else is randomized. If it wasn’t randomized, there are too many players trying to mess with their ranking leading into the tournament to avoid playing against potentially dangerous players.

Those players who do not receive a seed in a draw can randomly end up facing anyone. There are cases where the #1 seed has to play someone who just missed out on a seed in the very first round. It’s rare to see that actually happen, but there is always a chance.

Every single player who is in the main draw of a Grand Slam theoretically could win. It is a very difficult task to pull off, since there is a chance to face a challenging draw from the very beginning of the tournament.

In some instances, future greats have their breakout at Grand Slam events. Mats Wilander and Gustavo Kuerten are two examples of that. They both won the French Open at very young ages, before they had the ranking to receive a seed. Kuerten was especially shocking, since that also was his first professional tournament win.

Another common theme with unseeded winners is the once great star. Serena Williams, Andre Agassi and Kim Clijsters all won titles after being at the top of the game before. Tennis rankings only consider the last 12 months, so it’s not too difficult to fall outside the top 32. Clijsters actually retired two years before her 2009 U.S. Open title. Although she played some tournaments as warm ups, her ranking was not good enough to get a seed.

Finally, there have been some female players who have surprised the tennis world with Grand Slam wins despite not being seeded. Jelena Ostapenko shocked many with her 2017 French Open title. Sloane Stephens would pull off a surprising run of her own later that year at the U.S. Open. After battling injuries for a couple of years, she found her form and won it all.

Unseeded players win smaller tournaments on tour more frequently, but it’s extremely difficult to pull off at a Grand Slam.