Nadal and Safina seeded No. 1 for Wimbledon

WIMBLEDON, England — Defending champion Rafael Nadal and top-ranked women's player Dinara Safina were seeded No. 1 for Wimbledon on Wednesday.

There were no big surprises when the All England Club announced the seedings for the grass-court Grand Slam tournament, which opens Monday. The draw will be released Friday.

The top-ranked Nadal has been having trouble with his knees the past few months and received treatment after pulling out of the Wimbledon warm-up event at Queen's Club.

The Spaniard plans to test them by playing exhibition matches on grass against Lleyton Hewitt on Thursday and Stanislas Wawrinka on Friday at the Hurlingham Club in London.

Wimbledon stuck closely to the world rankings in determining the seeding lists for the two-week tournament.

The top six spots in the men's list follow the rankings. Five-time champion Roger Federer is No. 2, with Andy Murray at No. 3. Murray won his first grass-court title at Queen's Club on Sunday, becoming the first Briton to win the tournament since Bunny Austin in 1938, who then went on to become the last British men's finalist at Wimbledon.

They are followed by No. 4 Novak Djokovic, No. 5 Juan Martin Del Porto and No. 6 Andy Roddick. Eighth-ranked Fernando Verdasco is seeded No. 7 ahead of Gilles Simon.

Marat Safin, a semifinalist last year, is the No. 15 seed despite being ranked 23rd, while the big-serving Ivo Karlovic is at No. 23 while having a ranking of 31.

Among the women, Safina of Russia is followed by Serena Williams and defending champion Venus Williams.

The only major change from the rankings is 2004 Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova as the No. 24 seed despite being ranked 59th.

Sharapova has plunged down the rankings after nine months out with a shoulder injury but reached the semifinals of the Aegon Classic in Birmingham last week.