Tennis in its modern form traces back to the mid-19th century. The championships at Wimbledon, the oldest tennis tournament in the world, began in 1877. It was not until 1922 that an official governing body for the sport formed, called the International Tennis Federation, according to the ITF website. Throughout the decades this board has streamlined the rules of the game, and one of the laws it established was that of seeding the top players in tournaments.
Draw Structure
A grand slam singles draw contains 128 players. The two players who make it to the final will, therefore, play seven matches each. The 128 are largely those ranked the highest in the world, although qualifying tournaments play a role, and wild cards are awarded to lower-ranked players. In this draw the highest-ranked players will be seeded, meaning they are spaced out so that they will not play each other until the later rounds.
World Rankings
A points system dictates the world rankings, as shown on the ATP website. Players pick up points for their performances at tournaments. The ranking, or seeding, is based on the player's performances from the previous year. If a player gets further in a tournament, for example, than they did the previous year, their ranking may improve -- depending upon how other players have performed also.
Controversy
For many years only the top 16 players were seeded in a grand slam tennis tournament. These seedings were rather subjective, as the BBC website shows, because seedings were given to players who were good on the particular surface for that tournament. This system meant that some players in the world's top 16 would not get a seeding or the No. 1 player in the world may not be seeded first. This method understandably upset some of the top players.
32 Seeds
In 2001 the championships at Wimbledon paved the way for the new style of seeding. Now 32 players are seeded for each grand slam tournament. These 32 are the top 32 in the world rankings. Their seeding within that 32 then goes up or down depending on their previous results on different court surfaces. This system has proved to be more popular among the world's top players.
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