TENNIS ROUNDUP : Third-Ranked Sampras Seeded No. 5 at Wimbledon

The All-England Club kept to the world rankings Monday, installing Jim Courier and Monica Seles as the top-seeded players for the Wimbledon tennis championships beginning next week.

But tournament officials deviated from the rankings to avoid having the last three Wimbledon men’s champions in the same half of the draw.

Stefan Edberg, a two-time Wimbledon champion who is ranked No. 2 in the world, was seeded second.

But Pete Sampras, ranked No. 3, was bumped to No. 5 in the seedings while defending champion Michael Stich and three-time champion Boris Becker each moved up one spot to Nos. 3 and 4.

The move was designed to prevent having Edberg, Becker and Stich in the same half of the draw. Instead, the seedings allow for a potential rematch of last year’s final between Becker and Stich.

Mills said the decision was based strictly on grass-court records.

“Stich is the reigning champion and obviously a grass-court player, and Becker’s performances over the last few years are second to none,” said Alan Mills, Wimbledon referee. “Sampras really has not done a tremendous amount (at Wimbledon). It was purely and simply a question of present performance over the last years.”

Petr Korda, who lost to Courier in the French Open final, was seeded sixth, followed by Michael Chang, Goran Ivanisevic, Guy Forget and Ivan Lendl. The final six seedings went to Richard Krajicek, Andre Agassi, Brad Gilbert, Wayne Ferreira, Alexander Volkov and David Wheaton.

Wimbledon officials said Wheaton, ranked 27th in the world, was seeded higher because his game is suited to the grass courts.

“They should go by the ATP ranking,” Wheaton said. “You play a whole year to get your ranking and that’s what they should go on. But I’ll take it, certainly.”

Seles was followed by Steffi Graf, Gabriela Sabatini, Martina Navratilova, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Jennifer Capriati.

Navratilova, who has not lost a match at Eastbourne, England, since 1987, swept Britain’s Amanda Grunfeld, 6-2, 6-2, in the first round.

“I haven’t played for more than two months. I was just happy that I remembered everything I am supposed to do,” Navratilova said.

David Wheaton rallied from a 3-0 third-set deficit to beat South Africa’s Christo van Rensburg, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-5), in the first round at Manchester, England.