A seeded player in a sports competition is one ranked or rated and placed in a specific location in a draw. Tournaments seed players to prevent the top competitors from meeting in early rounds, which could result in a top player meeting a low-skilled player in the final.
The Seeding Process
A tournament director or committee seeds players, ranking them in order of skill or previous results. Some tournaments use a sports association's current rankings to determine seeds, some use last year's tournament results, and some use subjective criteria to seed players. For example, if a tennis player is ranked No. 1 by her association, but the No. 3 player in the tournament has a much better record on the tournament surface, or if the top-ranked player is coming off an injury, the committee may give the No. 3-ranked player the No. 1 seed.
Number of Seeds
The number of seeds in a tournament depends on the overall number of entrants. The more entrants there are, the more seeded players. If a tournament has only eight players, for example, the committee may seed only two or four players. If the tournament has 32 players, the committee may seed eight players.
Byes
Tournaments use even-numbered brackets to create draws, based on the number of players entered. Typical tournaments have eight, 16, 32 or 64 players. If a tournament has fewer players than a full bracket, those empty slots in the bracket are known as byes. For example, a tournament with 29 players would use a 32-player bracket and award three byes. Entrants who receive a bye do not have to play a first-round match. Seeded entrants receive byes first, in order of their seeding. If a draw has 31 players, the No. 1 seed receives a first-round bye. The No. 2 seed receives a bye if the draw has 30 entrants, and so on.
Placement
Once a committee determines its seeds, the seeds are placed in a blank draw in order of their seeding. The No. 1 and No. 2 seeds are placed at opposite ends of the draw, in anticipation of their meeting in the final, should the seedings turn out to be accurate. The No. 1 seed would be placed in the No. 1 slot in the bracket, while the No. 2 seed would be placed in the No. 32 slot, at the opposite end of the bracket. The Nos. 3 and 4 seeds are placed at the opposite ends of the bracket halves containing the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, and so on. Tournaments do not seed all players, usually seeding one-quarter of those entered. After the committee places the seeds and byes into the draw, it fills the remaining draw spots by picking the nonseeded entrants out of a hat, using a random computer program or other objective means.
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