There will still be 32 seeded players in the Grand Slam tournaments. This was announced on Thursday evening by the “Grand Slam Board”.
Originally, the heads of the Grand Slams aimed to reduce the number to only 16 seeded players. After consultation with players and TV stations, however, the responsible players rowed back and now announced that in 2019 all four Grand Slam tournaments will be staged with 32 seeded players as usual.
The Grand Slam Board consists of Jayne Hrdlicka (Australian Open), Bernard Giudicelli (French Open), Philip Brook (Wimbledon) and Katrina M. Adams (US Open). At the US Open on September 6, these four leaders decided to maintain the current system.
The players will probably breathe a sigh of relief from this decision – at least in the first two rounds, opponents outside the top 32 of the world rankings will be waiting. If there had only been 16 more laws, there would have been real fierce duels early on.
In 2017, for example, Roger Federer would not have been seeded in his sensational run at the Australian Open and could have met Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal in the first round. At least for the time being there will be duels of this magnitude only in the last rounds of the Grand Slam events to admire.