Big W tweaks seeding for Williams sisters

She returned to action this week at Eastbourne after taking a wildcard but lost in the second round to Vera Zvonareva.

Defending champion Serena Williams has been seeded eighth for next weeks Wimbledon championships but sister Venus is lurking down at 24th after the All England Club’s seedings committee met on Wednesday. Serena was top of the WTA rankings when she won her fourth Wimbledon singles title last year,her 13th major singles crown in all,but is now down at 26 after 11 months out through injury.

The 29-year-old American required surgery on her foot after slicing it open on broken glass in a Munich restaurant last July and then needed emergency treatment in February for potentially life threatening blood clots on her lungs. She returned to action this week at Eastbourne after taking a wildcard but lost in the second round to Vera Zvonareva.

Venus,who has won five Wimbledon singles titles but is now ranked 33,also made a comeback in Eastbourne after not playing since the Australian Open because of abdominal and hip injuries.

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The sisters,who between them have won nine of the last 11 singles titles at Wimbledon,have been upgraded at the discretion of the All England Club to ensure a balanced draw. The rest of the seedings follow the WTA rankings with Denmark’s world number one Caroline Wozniacki topping the draw.

Clijsters withdraws

World number two Kim Clijsters has withdrawn with a foot injury. Clijsters,the current U.S. Open and Australian Open champion,issued a statement saying she had injured her foot at the Den Bosch Open on Tuesday. Im very,very disappointed to have to withdraw from Wimbledon after injuring my foot again at the tournament in Hertogenbosch, said Clijsters,who was the second seed.

Meanwhile,Mirza and her Russian partner Elena Vesnina have been seeded fourth in the women’s doubles. Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi have been seeded third,while Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi are fourth. The men’s seedings have a top four of defending champion Rafa Nadal,Novak Djokovic,six-times champion Roger Federer and Andy Murray.

American Andy Roddick,three times a runner-up,has earned the eight seeding spot despite a current ranking of 10 which means he will avoid the big four until the quarter-finals. Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has also been shunted up to 12th from a ranking of 19 after his run to the Queen’s Club final where he lost to Murray.