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Title hope Murray seeded fourth for Wimbledon

Wednesday 20 June 2012

TENNIS: Andy Murray has been seeded fourth for this year's Wimbledon Championships which start next Monday.

The Scot, who is the British number one, has never won a grand slam.

Defending champion Novak Djokovic and 2004 winner Maria Sharapova are the top seeds for this year's tournament.

Both players top the seedings at the All England Club for the first time in their careers, with Djokovic having guaranteed the number one ranking by reaching the final 12 months ago.

Sharapova won the title as a 17-year-old eight years ago but her career has been disrupted by injury and Wimbledon will be her first tournament as world number one for four years after she won the French Open earlier this month.

The women's seedings match the rankings exactly, with Victoria Azarenka in second, Agnieszka Radwanska third and defending champion Petra Kvitova, who beat Sharapova in the final last year, seeded fourth.

US Open champion Sam Stosur is fifth, one place ahead of four-time champion Serena Williams, while last year's top seed Caroline Wozniacki is seventh this time.

The only changes to the seedings reflect the absence from the tournament of world number 16 Kaia Kanepi and number 18 Andrea Petkovic through injury.

In the men's draw, Djokovic is followed by the man he beat in last year's final, Rafael Nadal, who is fresh from winning a record seventh French Open title.

Six-time champion Roger Federer is seeded third, one place ahead of Murray, while last season's semi-finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is sixth.

Three-time finalist Andy Roddick is seeded 30th.

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