Nadal won the French Open four years in a row and had never lost a match in Paris before his surprising fourth loss last month. It was revealed that the left-handier had been competing with two knees sore with tendinitis for weeks.

After Paris, Nadal withdrew from a Wimbledon warm-up tournament which was contested the following week in London at Queen's Club and has not played an ATP Tour match since.

Nadal beat the five time Wimbledon champion and the world number two Roger Federer of Switzerland in a five set instant classic in last year's Wimbledon final before winning a gold medal in singles at the Summer Olympics at Beijing.

And together with his French Open title, Nadal last year become the only male player to ever win the French Open, Wimbledon and take a gold medal in singles competition at the Olympics in the same year.

Before his loss to Nadal at Wimbledon last year, Federer had scored 65 straight grasscourt wins.

In January, the 23 year old Nadal won his sixth grand slam singles title in Melbourne at the Australian Open, again defeating Federer in five sets in the final.

Wednesday, Nadal received the top seed at Wimbledon, while the top ranked Dinara Safina of Russia was named the ladies' top seed.

While for the most part mirroring the professional tennis tours' rankings for their seeding purposes, Wimbledon awarded Marat Safin of Russia, the brother of Safina, a seed of 15th despite his ranking of 23rd. Safin topped the ATP Tour rankings in 2000 and is this year competing for his last year on the ATP Tour.

The 2004 ladies' Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova of Russia, currently ranked 59th was seeded 24th.

The Wimbledon gentlemen's and ladies' singles draws are to be released Friday.

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