The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Nadal is top seed

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Nadal is top seed

New York: Rafael Nadal, of Spain, will be the top seed in a Grand Slam for the first time in his career at this year’s U.S. Open.

The newly-crowned World No. 1 will be followed by No. 2 Roger Federer of Switzerland, No. 3 Novak Djokovic of Serbia, No. 4 David Ferrer of Spain and No. 5 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia. After spending 160 consecutive weeks ranked second, Nadal officially became the new No. 1 on Monday — ending Federer’s record reign of 237 straight weeks.

A 12-time Grand Slam champion, Federer was the top seed at the last 18 Majors.

The highest-seeded American is No. 8 Andy Roddick, who won the event in 2003, and countryman James Blake is just a spot back at No. 9.

Like the men’s seeding, there were no major surprises in the women’s draw, where top-ranked Ana Ivanovic is the No. 1, followed by Jelena Jankovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Serena Williams and Elena Dementieva. French Open runner-up Dinara Safina is the No. 6 and Wimbledon champion Venus Williams is the seventh seed.

Prakash, Sunita lose

Meanwhile, Prakash Amritraj was knocked out 3-6, 4-6 by America’s Ryan Sweeting in the first round of qualifying matches. Sunitha Rao was also handed a 3-6, 4-6 defeat by Argentina’s Soledad Esperon.— Agencies

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