Wimbledon seeds named

Press, 15 June 1983, Page 48

Wimbledon seeds named

NZPA London The American defending champions, Jimmy Connors and Martina Navratilova, were yesterday named the top seeds for the singles events at the Wimbledon tennis championships which begin next Monday. Connors, aged 30, beat his arch-rival, John McEnroe, 6-3, 6-3, in the final of the London grass court championship at the Queen’s Club in London for the second straight year on Sunday — his third successive victory on grass over McEnroe. But McEnroe, despite losing his Wimbledon title to Connors last year, recently

regained the top ranking on the players’ computer which in most cases determines the seedings for tournaments. Wimbledon officials, however, decided to go with Connors’’recent superiority on grass as well as his overall record in major events. The Czech-born Navratilova, despite being the world’s No.' 1 and beaten only once this year, has been overshadowed in recent months by the American, Chris Evert Lloyd. Lloyd is the current holder of the United States, Australian and French Open crowns and comes to Wimbledon bidding to hold

all four “Grand Slam” titles. In this case, however, the officials went with the rankings. Top eight seedings (United States unless stated) are:— Men’s singles.—Jimmy Connors 1, John McEnroe 2, Ivan Lendl (Czechoslovakia) 3, Guillermo Vilas (Argentina) 4, Mats Willeander (Sweden) 5, Gene Mayer 6, Jose-Luis Clerc (Argentina) 7, Vitas Gerulaitis Women’s singles. — Martina Navratilova 1, Chris Evert Lloyd 2, Andrea Jaeger 3, Tracy Austin 4, Pam Shriver 5, Bettina Bunge (West Germany) 6, Wendy Turnbull (Australia) 7, Hana Mandlikova (Czechoslovakia) 8.