Seeding is a Joke

[Grover]

This is from a news article put up on the site a little while ago. This would never happen in tennis or another sport. They all have a seeding committee which takes account of everything, for example, Pete Sampras will always get a high ranking on grass no matter where he is seeded in the world because it is one of his best surfaces.

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"England's Malaysian Open champions Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms are seeded to reach the mixed doubles final but have been drawn for a likely last eight meeting against the world's best pair, Zhang Jun and Gao Ling, the world and Olympic champions.

Last year, Robertson and Emms were seeded to reach the semi-finals, only to land a first round meeting with former All-England champions from South Korea, Kim Dong-moon and Ra Kyung-min, who were not seeded. The Koreans went on to win the title again."

[Dave]

If you wanna be the best........

[Grover]

Complete disaster for the tournaments though. The final rounds will be contested by the top players and some very average players.

No incentive for TV or the media to follow the event. Players have to play at the very top of their game in the first match. Nothing good can come out of it.

[Derek]

What makes you think that some "very average" players will make it to the later rounds of the tournament? I am willing to bet that from the quarters onwards, only the top players will be left. If Robertson and Emms are genuinely No.2 in the world then they should be able to beat anyone else that they meet on the way to the final and if they play at their best I am sure that they will.
On the other hand I do tend to agree with the initial proposition that the seedings are a joke! I believe that it is a mistake to rely on the IBF rankings which are very misleading for the reasons outlined by Finn Traerup. Look at Wijaya and Bugiarto - unseeded in the Men's Doubles having just won the Copenhagen Masters, not to mention World and Olympic Championships. There are lots of other anomalies too but I don't know what the solution should be!

[Grover]

They need a seeding committee. It's simple.