Ferrero and men of clay are snubbed

Wimbledon risked the withdrawal of Juan Carlos Ferrero, the world's third-ranked player, when announcing their seedings last night.

The Spanish clay court specialist, a French Open semi-finalist earlier this month, was seeded only eighth while Britain's Tim Henman moved up to sixth, despite a world ranking of 11th.

As many as 11 clay-courters have also suffered demotion, though no-one by as big a margin as Ferrero, who said last week: 'I'm in favour of a boycott. If the seedings are decided according to results of previous years there are a lot of chances I will not go.'

Gustavo Kuerten, the World No.1 and French champion, had already pulled out along with Spaniard Alex Corretja, both citing leg injuries. They might have been pulling the same leg.

But, with Henman and fellow grass-court specialist Pat Rafter major beneficiaries of Wimbledon retaining their privilege to juggle people around according to proficiency on grass, the new 32 seedings system received a guarded welcome.

Jonas Bjorkman, the players' council president, said: 'Most players and people maybe preferred to just have the seedings straight off the world rankings.

'But this is the best way we can go at the moment. I personally think it's pretty good to have it this way because grass is such a different surface. When I was No.4 in the world it was more fair for me to be down at eight or nine in the seedings. I know everyone at Wimbledon has been working hard to make the players pleased.'

All Grand Slam tournaments announced last week that they were doubling the number of seeded players to 32, with the order determined by a formula that assesses past performance on each event's playing surface.

Bjorkman added: 'It's going to be good to have all four of the Slams with the possibility of making a little change to the world rankings. Players should be really, really pleased with the effort that the Wimbledon committee have made in going to 32 seeds.'

The All England Club have always cited the case of Thomas Muster as one of the most ludicrous examples of inflexibility. The World No.1 in 1996 would have been top seed, despite having not won a match at Wimbledon in four attempts.

Henman's impressive record of two semi-finals and two quarter-finals in the last five years, plus a fourth-round defeat by Mark Philippoussis last year, is second only to that of Sampras.

But Wimbledon's attempts at compromise were not enough to satisfy hardliners like Marat Safin. The former World No.1 was adamant.

'So what that Pete Sampras has won seven times? His seeding should be the same as his ranking,' said Safin.

Henman will not know until this morning's draw whether he lines up for a projected quarter-final tie against Sampras, No.1 seed for the eighth time, Andre Agassi, No.2, Rafter or, ironically, fourth seed Safin.

Rafter, who lost in last year's final to Sampras, rises from a ranking of 10 to occupy the position of No.3 seed. Other big gainers are Vladimir Voltchkov (30 to 16), a surprise semi-finalist in 2000, Nicolas Kiefer (29-19) and American Todd Martin who, though ranked 33, is seeded at No.23.

It remains to be seen whether such tampering, numerically minor but much greater in terms of principle, will precipitate the threatened boycott of The Championships.

Greg Rusedski, who would be seeded in terms of grass-ourt ability, misses out due to being ranked outside the top 32.

The British No.2 heads the list of dangerous 'floaters' who could be pulled out alongside the name of a seed today.

The women's draw reflects strict adherence to the official rankings, with Martina Hingis seeded No.1 despite having not lifted a Grand Slam title for two years.

Reigning champion Venus Williams is No.2 while Jennifer Capriati, bidding for her third Grand Slam of the year, is No.4.