Former doubles world number one Paul McNamee has stated it
is not ‘worth mentioning’ that
Carlos Alcaraz’s top seed was largely down to rules
of the governing body last year.
Wimbledon’s governing body has announced the list of top-seeded players for the third Grand Slam of the year which will be played from 03-16
July in London.
Alcaraz will be the top seed in the men’s singles category,
ahead of the defending champion
Novak Djokovic.
The development received backlash from some quarters,
largely because Alcaraz has only won one major title in his career compared to
Djokovic, who now has won the most Grand Slams (23) in the Open era.
Seven of Djokovic’s triumphs out of those 23 titles came
while playing at Wimbledon. He has now won four in a row since 2018.
McNamee, while responding to a tweet shared by Wimbledon’s
official page, agreed with that notion but stated that there is no point in
mentioning those details.
"Not sure that’s worth highlighting. Not Alacaraz’
fault at all, but to be fair it’s coinciding with the only time the results
from the previous Wimbledon were not considered," he tweeted.
Last year, the 36-year-old’s triumph at Wimbledon did not
earn him the customary 2000 points awarded to Grand Slam champions as the All
England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC) banned Russian and Belarusian
players from taking part in the competition.
Alcaraz’s first and till now only major triumph in the senior’s
tennis arena was his victory in the US Open last year where he defeated Norway’s
Casper Ruud in the final with a score of 6–4, 2–6, 7–6(7–1), 6–3.
This year, the Spanish tennis star did not take part in the
Australian Open whereas he suffered a defeat in the semi-final against Novak
Djokovic in the French Open with a score of 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1.