Andy Murray's hopes of retaining his Wimbledon title will receive a boost when he is bumped up two places to No.3 in the seeding list.
The Scot will move above both Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka thanks to his efforts on grass over the past two years. And last year's runner-up Novak Djokovic will be elevated above world No.1 Rafael Nadal to take the No.1 seeded position, leaving the Spaniard at No.2.
Moving from No.5 to a seeding of No.3 means Murray cannot play Djokovic, Nadal or Federer until at least the semi-finals.
Wimbledon is the only one of the four grand slam events not to go strictly off the ATP ranking list when it comes to choosing its 32 seeded players, a decision it makes because of the unique nature of grass-court tennis and the relative shortness of the grass-court season.
To apply its grass-court formula, Wimbledon takes a player's official ranking points as of Monday and then adds 100% of their grass-court points over the past 12 months and 75% of their best event in the year before that.
As the defending champion, Murray receives more "bonus" points than anyone else in the draw and moves well above Wawrinka, who also falls below Federer thanks to his 2012 Wimbledon victory.
Wawrinka is the biggest loser of the formula, which does not apply to the women's event, though Wimbledon reserves the right to move women up from the WTA rankings if they so choose.
Wawrinka said it would not affect his chances of a second grand slam title. "At the end of the day, it doesn't change much. You have to play well. You have to start well the tournament if you want to go far, and that's simple."
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