Baghdatis and Berdych benefit in Wimbledon seedings

Marcos Baghdatis and Tomas Berdych have both benefited from Wimbledon's unique seedings policy this year after strong showings in 2007.

The seedings for next week's grasscourt grand slam, released by the All England Club yesterday, have Cypriot Baghdatis seeded 10th compared to a world ranking of 25. Czech Berdych is seeded 11th despite an ATP ranking of 19.

Baghdatis reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon last year where he lost to Novak Djokovic in a five-set marathon. Berdych also reached the last eight, losing to Rafael Nadal.

Wimbledon is the only grand slam tournament which does not stick strictly to the ATP ranking list in deciding seedings. In allocating the 32 slots the seeding's committee takes into account performances on grass over a two-year period.

Five-times champion Roger Federer, who extended his winning run on grass to 59 matches when he defended his Halle title last week, is seeded one, while French Open champion Ana Ivanovic, is top seed in the women's singles after taking over first place in the rankings.

Lleyton Hewitt, the 2002 champion, is seeded at 20, seven higher than his world ranking, but there is no seeding for Mario Ancic, a former semi-finalist and the last man to beat Federer at Wimbledon.

The women's seedings have stuck rigidly to the top 32 in the world rankings as the seeding committee found no special cases for grass court performances.

The Wimbledon fortnight begins on Monday with the draw being made tomorrow.