Serena seeded 25th for Wimbledon

Bengaluru, June 27: Serena Williams has been seeded 25th for Wimbledon despite being ranked 183rd in the world with French Open champion Simona Halep getting the top billing and 2017 champion Garbine Muguruza seeded third

Defending men's champion Roger Federer is number one seed despite Spaniard Rafael Nadal taking over as world number one this week, the All England Club announced on Wednesday.

Seedings announced for The Championships 2018: https://t.co/dFdFzTWmzZ #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/ec5TrOHcPZ
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) June 27, 2018

The seeding committee met on Tuesday to discuss whether Serena, 23-time Grand Slam singles champion would be seeded as she works her way back up the rankings after giving birth to her first child last September.

Serena was unseeded for her major comeback at the French Open and the All England Club usually bases its seedings on the WTA ranking list.

But the legendary American is among the 32 seeds at the expense of Dominika Cibulkova.

When the seedings committee met, the thorny issue of whether to break from the current WTA rankings, the usual criteria for seeding the women's draw, and elevate Serena was top of their agenda.

It reserves the right to change the women's seedings to "produce a balanced draw" and Serena, whose protected ranking does not guarantee a seeding, was considered as a special case.

At the French Open last month, when her ranking was 451, she was not seeded and came up against Australian 17th seed Ashleigh Barty in the second round, winning in three sets.

She reached the fourth round before pulling out shortly before her match against Russian Maria Sharapova.

While many have said Serena, who has played only seven competitive matches since giving birth to daughter Alexis Olympia last September, should not be penalised for taking time out to start a family, others say seeding her is unfair.

One of them, Slovakian former Australian Open finalist Cibulkova, is the player most disadvantaged by the decision to seed Williams, as she is 32nd in the rankings and would have taken the last seeded spot.

Cibulkova could now potentially face Halep, or Serena, in the first round.

"I think it's now right that WTA offers a protected ranking. I think that's good. But I think this is a little bit of a different story," she said at the Eastbourne championships.

"Why should I not be seeded if I have the right to be?

"I think if it was a different player, not her, I think she would not be seeded. It's just because she won it many times and she's Serena Williams. So I think that's why."

The men's seeds show a few tweaks from the ATP rankings with Wimbledon using a formula designed to take into account results on grasscourts.

Last year's runner-up Marin Cilic is number three seed despite a world ranking of five, while three-time champion Novak Djokovic is 12th seed - five spots higher than his ranking.

Apart from Serena, 2016 men's runner-up Milos Raonic is the biggest riser with a 13th seeding from a ranking of 32.

(With Agency/OPTA inputs).