Clijsters forced out as seedings help Williams in hat-trick quest

The 28-year-old US Open and Australian Open champion, who initially picked up the injury while dancing at a wedding, suffered a recurrence of the problem when playing at the Unicef Open in s’Hertogenbosch this week.

“I’m very, very disappointed to have to withdraw from Wimbledon after injuring my foot again at the tournament in s’Hertogenbosch,” said Clijsters.

Following the second-seeded Belgian’s announcement, the players below her all move up a place, with Tsvetana Pironkova coming in at No 32.

With world No 1 Caroline Wozniacki given top billing, Vera Zvonareva is the new second seed, Li Na third, Victoria Azarenka fourth and Maria Sharapova fifth.

Further down, Serena Williams is the No 7 seed, aiding her quest for a hat-trick of titles as she would not be scheduled to meet a top-eight player until the quarter-finals.

Williams won last year’s title by beating Zvonareva, but only returned for the first time at Eastbourne this week after injury and illness kept her sidelined.

In the men’s, Andy Murray has been handed the fourth seeding as expected after the All England Club elected to adhere to the top-five world rankings.

Champion Rafael Nadal is the top seed ahead of Novak Djokovic, with six-time winner Roger Federer third on the list.

Yesterday, Williams lost 3-6 7-6 (7/5) 7-5 to Zvonareva in her second-round match at Eastbourne, while British men’s No 2 James Ward, a shock semi-finalist at Queen’s Club last week, lost 6-3 4-6 6-2 to third seed Janko Tipsarevic.

Men’s seedings: 1 R Nadal, 2 N Djokovic, 3 R Federer, 4 A Murray, 5 R Soderling, 6 T Berdych, 7 D Ferrer, 8 A Roddick, 9 G Monfils, 10 M Fish, 11 J Melzer, 12 JW Tsonga, 13 V Troicki, 14 S Wawrinka, 15 G Simon, 16 N Almagro, 17 R Gasquet, 18 M Youzhny, 19 M Llodra, 20 F Mayer, 21 Fo Verdasco, 22 A Dolgoplov, 23 J Tipsarevic, 24 JM Del Potro, 25 JI Chela, 26 G Garcia-Lopez, 27 M Cilic, 28 D Nalbandian, 29 N Davydenko, 30 T Bellucci, 31 M Raonic, 32 M Baghdatis.

Women’s seedings: 1 C Wozniacki, 2 V Zvonareva, 3 N Li, 4 V Azarenka, 5 M Sharapova, 6 F Schiavone, 7 S Williams, 8 P Kvitova, 9 M Bartoli, 10 S Stosur, 11 A Petkovic, 12 S Kuznetsova, 13 A Radwanska, 14 A Pavlyuchenkova, 15 J Jankovic, 16 J Goerges, 17 K Kanepi, 18 A Ivanovic, 19 Y Wickmayer, 20 S Peng, 21 F Pennetta, 22 Shahar Peer, 23 V Williams, 24 D Cibulkova, 25 D Hantuchova, 26 M Kirilenko, 27 J Gajdosova, 28 E Makarova, 29 R Vinci, 30 B Mattek-Sands, 31 L Safarova, 32 T Pironkova.

Britain’s last hope in the singles qualifying for Wimbledon was extinguished yesterday as Melanie South suffered a 7-5 6-3 loss to Misaki Doi.

Katie O’Brien and Anna Fitzpatrick lost 6-3 6-3 to Russians Nina Bratchikova and Valeria Savinykh Lertcheewakarn and Jessica Moore in the doubles.