LLEYTON Hewitt's prospects of avoiding a first-week clash with Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal rest in the hands of the All England Club's seeding committee.

Hewitt dropped three places in the rankings to No. 19 on Monday, complicating hopes of a top-eight seeding at Wimbledon.

Unlike its three grand slam partners, which seeds directly off the rankings, Wimbledon reserves the right to formulate its own seedings.

Hewitt, the 2002 champion and winner of five other grasscourt titles, will benefit from that policy, but to what extent remains unknown.

Unless he is seeded in the top eight, he runs the risk of meeting the world's best two players in the fourth round, or earlier.

Wimbledon bases its seedings on a player's ranking and performances on grass in the past two seasons.

Hewitt won the Queen's Club in London last season but lost in the second round last week to Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

His Wimbledon results in 2005 and 2006 were impressive: a semi-finalist two years ago and quarter-finalist last season.

Those results alone will ensure Hewitt is pushed to a higher seeding, as he was last year when he was sixth seed despite a ranking of ninth.

Hewitt currently sits behind a raft of claycourters and, in some cases, competitors who are in doubt for the tournament, which starts on Monday.

World No. 8 Andy Murray is still to declare his fitness after battling wrist soreness, while No. 10 Tommy Haas has not played since the Rome Masters in early May because of a shoulder problem.

Hewitt's recent grasscourt results are vastly superior to most of the men ranked 11th-18th: Richard Gasquet, Ivan Ljubicic, Mikhail Youzhny, David Ferrer, Guillermo Canas and Juan Carlos Ferrero.

Only Tomas Berdych (11th) and Marcos Baghdatis (16th) have performed well on grass.

Wimbledon officials will meet tonight to discuss the issue.

Hewitt is still to reveal his plans for the rest of the week, although it is likely he will take part in one of two London exhibitions.

He remains confident his Queen's setback will not be a factor at grand slam level.

"This week I'll be playing practice sets and be ready to go next week," Hewitt said.

Victorians Chris Guccione and Peter Luczak achieved career-high singles rankings yesterday.

Guccione rose three places to 95th after winning one round at Queen's.

Luczak, who was 246th in the world in March, moved to 98th after winning the Bytom Challenger in Poland.

He claimed the Furth Challenger in Germany a week earlier, also on clay, but, despite his surge, has decided to bypass Wimbledon to continue his progress on the red dirt.

if wimbledon really wants to make a statement, lleyton will get a top 8 seeding. but even if he misses out, he should be around the top dozen.

Not sure whether he deserves it? :shrug:
Where is he now? Around 20th possibly?
I know he has an impressive grass court record but if that was the only thing to go on then surely Henman should be up there too? Although I guess he hasn't won the damn thing.. :P

I think there is a fine balance with how much the AELTC can bump players up the rankings based on past performances when their current form and rankings do not refelct that..

So I voted no...

Watch him win the thing now!

i thought there was a formula that they used to decide on seedings at Wimbledon? i didn't think it was just arbitrary anymore?

The formula the AELTC have used before is this week's points plus 100% of points from this year's grass tournaments and 75% of last year's grass points. As Hewitt went out early at Queens this year I doubt he will get enough points to make much difference.

That's exactly what I thought, but I don't neccessarily agree. When seeding people I think the surface should be a factor. It would certainly ensure that we have more decnet players left in at the end to make it a better tournie, rather than losing them early on. However there is also the argument that a player's ranking accross all surfaces is something they work hard at all year and so they should have the right to enter on a surface that favours them less with a higher seeding. Trouble with this is we lose the likes of Roddick early in the FO! If draws open up from high seeds havign early exits, then a weaker draw can open up.

I do think that Hewitt should in theory be in the top 5 potential Wimby winners easily. Whether in practice he deserves his seeding raised is another issue, but if Winby can do this and they apply the policy fairly then i am all for it. I'd rather my good grass players stayed in the tournie longer rather than shorter.

Only query - has Tim ever qualified for this liek Llleyton just has? If so was it used and what abotu last year, or did eh not raise enough points to justify it?

No no no he doesn't deserve a seeding with the way he has been playing over the last year. Others who have been on form and played really well who deserve there ranking should be seeded higher. If Hewitt is that good on grass still he should prove it perhaps!

P.S. I do hope he does, I like the fight in him when he is in the zone..

I'd prefer the seedings to be based on surface in general to be honest.

I mean, Davydenko hates grass, and I don't think has won consecutive games on the surface. his coach has gone so far as to say that he should take June as a holiday!

I think that last year's draw shows that the seedings should be more heavily weighted towards the good grass court players.

Oh, Gasquet won Nottingham for 2 years in a row, so is no mug on the surface. Should have been seeded, even if returning from injury, rather than play Federer in the first round.

I also think that Wimbledon should be different in seedings because the grass court season is so short. If the grass court season were to be, say 2 months then perhaps the seedings should be less weighted.

And let's face it, the clay courters do have an unfair advantage as they will be ranked higher because, well, there's been a good length clay court season over the last couple of months..

Maybe Hewitt should be seeded 12 or something, that would seem reasonable..

i take a more short sighted view, if you are good enough to win, then should be able to beat the top players regardless of when you meet them, and think the seeding system should be inline with the other slams

Good point about the length of the season. If they took surface into account then we would not have those awful years where one half of the draw is packed with those more suited to clay and the other those more suited to grass. It robs the spectators of decent matches, and the best players don't get through to the latter stages.

That was really a mistake from the organisers. It may have deprived him of many ranking points. Which even in this year seeding worked against his interest.

I always thought this seeding was arbitrary and not based on " a rigorous method" taking into account the last 2 years grass touneys results!

Because there is no such way to be really fair, I would prefer the ATP ranking to apply like it does in the other slams.

last week, for instance, Roddick could have lost against Bogdano or Mahut...one point made the difference. I still believe that Roddick could lose in the early rounds and that putting him 3rd is also questionable.

I agree re: Roddick. He did nto have a great grass year ls year either. I'd give a fully fit Murray as high a seeding as Roddick. In fact Murray's undone him a couple of times and yet he's ranked 5 places below. Murray got no favours, he is ranked 8 and seeded 8.