how does seeding work in france

June 8, 2012 8:24 AM

How come in the frencch open semis, djokavic is playing federer?

Djoke is #1 in the world, Fed is #3. Usually if all seeds win out, 1 would play 4, 2 would play 3. In fact, i assumed this was Djokavic's biggest advantage as #1 seed.

posted by alkupe to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (5 answers total)

Best answer: The French Open seeds the entire field across 8 groups of 16, which all play a single elimination table. Once you're seeded, you follow your track the whole way. The winner of Group 1 plays the winner of Group 2, 3 play 4, 5 plays 6, 7 plays 8, the winners of 1/2 and 3/4 play, 5/6 and 7/8 play, and those winners play in the final.

Djokavic won group 1 and beat the Group 2 winner (Tsonga) in the quarters , Federer won Group 3 beating the group 4 winner (del Potro) so they meet in the Group 1-4 semifinal.
posted by eriko at 8:38 AM on June 8, 2012

Best answer: "the 1 and 2 seeds are placed in separate brackets, but then the 3 and 4 seeds are assigned to their brackets randomly, and so too are seeds 5 through 8, and so on."

(link)
posted by roofus at 8:44 AM on June 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: thanks guys. is that normal for tennis tournaments to be so byzantine? or is it just the french. when nadal was #1 it sure seems like he got to play the 4 seed so i assumed that was the way it worked
posted by alkupe at 8:50 AM on June 8, 2012

Yes, this is normal. And roofus has it right about the third and fourth seeds. You will see 1 vs. 3 as often as you do 2 vs. 3 in the semifinals.

This year's French Open and last year's are a perfect example:

Last year, it was Federer (3) vs. Djokovic (2) in the semis (i.e. seeds 1 and 4 are in the same half of the draw--the other semifinal).

This year, it is Federer (3) vs. Djokovic (1) in the semis (i.e. seeds 1 and 3 are in the same half of the draw).

In both cases, it's impossible for 1 vs. 2 to happen until the final.
posted by yellowcandy at 9:41 AM on June 8, 2012

Interestingly, there were some suggestions recently that the men's draw at grand slams were being fixed due the statistical improbability of how often Federer and Djokovic were in one half of the draw with Murray and Nadal in the other.
posted by neilb449 at 11:13 AM on June 8, 2012