Novak Djokovic, Iga Swiatek Draw No. 1 Seeds at Wimbledon

21 June 2022, United Kingdom, London: Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic in action during a practice session ahead of the 2022 Wimbledon Tennis Championship at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. (dpa)
21 June 2022, United Kingdom, London: Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic in action during a practice session ahead of the 2022 Wimbledon Tennis Championship at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. (dpa)
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Novak Djokovic, Iga Swiatek Draw No. 1 Seeds at Wimbledon

21 June 2022, United Kingdom, London: Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic in action during a practice session ahead of the 2022 Wimbledon Tennis Championship at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. (dpa)
21 June 2022, United Kingdom, London: Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic in action during a practice session ahead of the 2022 Wimbledon Tennis Championship at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. (dpa)

Six-time and defending champion Novak Djokovic and French Open winner Iga Swiatek were announced Tuesday as the top seeds for the fortnight of Wimbledon, set to begin Monday in London.

While Swiatek is the No. 1 women's player in the world, the No. 1 men's player in the world, Daniil Medvedev, will not participate in the grass-court Grand Slam. The All England Club in April opted to block all Russian and Belarusian players from this year's tournament due to their countries' role in the invasion of Ukraine.

World men's No. 8 Andrey Rublev is also banned. On the women's side, World No. 6 Aryna Sabalenka is also one of several players not allowed to compete.

World No. 2 Alexander Zverev of Germany is also out of the event after suffering an injury at the French Open.

Men's French Open champ Rafael Nadal is the No. 2 seed, followed by Norway's Casper Ruud, Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece and teen phenom Carlos Alcaraz of Spain.

Felix Auger-Aliassime, Hubert Hurkacz, 2021 runner-up Matteo Berrettini, Cameron Norrie and Jannik Sinner round out the top 10.

In ladies' singles, Anett Kontaveit of Estonia is the No. 2 seed followed by Tunisia's Ons Jabeur, Paula Badosa of Spain and Maria Sakkari of Greece.

Last year's runner-up Karolina Pliskova, Danielle Collins, Jessica Pegula, 2017 champion Garbine Muguruza and US Open champ Emma Raducanu round out the top 10.

Ashleigh Barty won the women's 2021 Wimbledon title but elected to retire earlier this year.

The Wimbledon singles draw will be announced Friday. Djokovic and Swiatek are the betting favorites to win.



Alcaraz, Sinner Would Benefit from New Big Three, McEnroe Says

Tennis - Laver Cup - Uber Arena, Berlin, Germany - September 20, 2024 Team World captain John McEnroe reacts during Team World's Thanasi Kokkinakis match against Team Europe's Stefanos Tsitsipas REUTERS/Annegret Hilse
Tennis - Laver Cup - Uber Arena, Berlin, Germany - September 20, 2024 Team World captain John McEnroe reacts during Team World's Thanasi Kokkinakis match against Team Europe's Stefanos Tsitsipas REUTERS/Annegret Hilse
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Alcaraz, Sinner Would Benefit from New Big Three, McEnroe Says

Tennis - Laver Cup - Uber Arena, Berlin, Germany - September 20, 2024 Team World captain John McEnroe reacts during Team World's Thanasi Kokkinakis match against Team Europe's Stefanos Tsitsipas REUTERS/Annegret Hilse
Tennis - Laver Cup - Uber Arena, Berlin, Germany - September 20, 2024 Team World captain John McEnroe reacts during Team World's Thanasi Kokkinakis match against Team Europe's Stefanos Tsitsipas REUTERS/Annegret Hilse

The emergence of a third young star to challenge the supremacy of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner would push the duo's already scintillating rivalry to new heights, tennis great John McEnroe said.

Alcaraz and Sinner are coming off a French Open final for the ages and head into next week's Wimbledon having evenly split the last six majors between them, Reuters reported.

"It's going to be an interesting time to see if there's another player or two who can break in with those two the way Novak (Djokovic) did when he was trying to get to the same level as Roger (Federer) and Rafa (Nadal)," McEnroe told reporters on Wednesday.

"It shows you what type of a player he was that he was able to do that. But right now, there's a void."

Djokovic, Federer and Nadal enjoyed a two-decade stranglehold on men's tennis and their era of dominance was made even richer by the three-sided nature of the rivalry.

In a Roland Garros showdown of unsurpassed quality, 22-year-old Alcaraz of Spain saved three successive match points to battle back from two sets down and beat the Italian in the longest French Open final in history.

Miami Open champion Jakub Mensik, 19, and 18-year-old Brazilian Joao Fonseca are two teenagers McEnroe could envision breaking into the Alcaraz-Sinner rivalry, as well as big-serving American Ben Shelton.

"One of those two guys or Ben would be my choice right now," said seven-time Grand Slam champion McEnroe.

"I think it would be important to get another guy or two to add to the mix. That would be really helpful."

McEnroe said the future of men's tennis is in great hands provided Alcaraz, who is seeking a hat-trick of Wimbledon titles next month, and world number one Sinner stay healthy.

"It was unheard of what we watched over the last 20 years and you can make the argument that what we're seeing now is even faster and different from what we saw even five years ago," he said.

"I can't wait to see what it's going to be like in 10 years, or five years even."