Federer, Ivanovic take No. 1 seeds for Wimbledon

[June 19, 2008]  WIMBLEDON, England (AP) -- Five-time champion Roger Federer and top-ranked Ana Ivanovic were seeded No. 1 for Wimbledon on Wednesday. There were no big surprises when the All England Club announced the seedings for the grass-court Grand Slam, which begins Monday.

Federer is aiming for his sixth straight Wimbledon title and 13th Grand Slam championship. Ivanovic looks at add to her French Open title.

Wimbledon stuck closely to the world rankings, particularly among the women, in determining the seeding for the two-week tournament. The top seven spots in the men's list followed the rankings.

Federer is followed by No. 2 Rafael Nadal, runner-up at Wimbledon the past two years, and No. 3 Novak Djokovic, the Australian Open champion. Next is No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko, No. 5 David Ferrer, No. 6 and two-time finalist Andy Roddick and No. 7 David Nalbandian.

Richard Gasquet and James Blake swap spots, with the Frenchman at No. 8 ahead of the American at No. 9. The biggest change involves Marcos Baghdatis, who is seeded at No. 10 -- 15 spots above his world ranking. The Cypriot player reached the semifinals in 2006 and the quarters last year.

Among the women, Wimbledon kept to the rankings all the way through the first 20 seeded players.

The list is headed by Ivanovic, who won the French Open for her first Grand Slam title and took over as No. 1.

She is followed by Jelena Jankovic at No. 2, former champion Maria Sharapova at No. 3, Svetlana Kuznetsova at No. 4, Elena Dementieva at No. 5, two-time winner Serena Williams at No. 6 and defending champion and four-time winner Venus Williams at No. 7.

The draw for the tournament will be held Friday.

[Associated Press; By JIMMY GOLEN]

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