John Lloyd wants Grand Slams including Wimbledon to revert to something that has not been done since 2000.
Wimbledon and the other three Grand Slams all have 32 seeded players, and have done so since 2000.
This means that seeded players are unable to play each other in the tournament until at least the third round.
However, this is something that three-time Grand Slam mixed doubles champion Lloyd believes should change in the future, which would impact both Alexandra Eala and Emma Raducanu this year.
Andrew Castle and John Lloyd call for Grand Slams to go back down to 16 seeds
Both Eala and Raducanu are seeded at Wimbledon this year, as the 29th and 30th seeds in the women’s singles draw, respectively.
However, former British number one’s Andrew Castle and Lloyd want there to be only 16 seeds, which would leave both Eala and Raducanu as unseeded players.
“I think there should be 16 [seeds] and then we would have better matches in the first week, guaranteed,” Castle said live on the BBC.
Lloyd was in full agreement with this, backing up Castle’s point about the quality of matches being better in the opening rounds with 16 seeds.
He said, “People tend to forget that a Slam is two weeks and in the first week, there should be a lot of good matches and sometimes it is guilty of early rounds, particularly from the top seeds, not being great. You stick 16 seeds in there will be some great first and second round matches.”
Who is your early shout to win the men’s Wimbledon title?
What happened at Wimbledon the last time there were only 16 seeds?
The 2000 edition of Wimbledon was the last time that the grass court major had only 16 seeds, but there was a very familiar winner in the men’s singles draw.
Top seed Pete Sampras would win his seventh and final Wimbledon title after beating Patrick Rafter in the final.
However, there was a very surprise semi-finalist, as qualifier Vladimir Voltchkov reached the last four of a major tournament for the first and only time.
The women’s singles tournament at Wimbledon in 2000 was won by Venus Williams, who claimed her first major singles title after beating Lindsay Davenport in the final.
Wimbledon and other Grand Slam tournaments are set to continue with 32 seeds going forward, but both Castle and Lloyd believe this could damage the level of matches in the first two rounds.
