Five-time winner Williams pulls out of Wimbledon with back injury, McCenroe's plea in vain as Rafa Nadal is seeded 5th in Wimbledon!

Five-time singles champion Venus Williams has pulled out of Wimbledon because of a back injury.

The 33-year-old struggled with the problem during the clay-court season and has not played since withdrawing from the doubles at Roland Garros with sister Serena.

Williams wrote on her Facebook page: 'Unfortunately, I will not be able to participate in Wimbledon this year.

'I am extremely disappointed as I have always loved The Championships, but I need to take time to let my back heal.



'I look forward to returning to the courts as soon as possible, with my goal being to return to Mylan World Team Tennis on July 8th in Washington DC. Many thanks to my fans for the love and support and I will be seeing you very soon back on the courts.'

Williams has become increasingly prone to injury as well as battling the auto-immune disease Sjogren's Syndrome.

She had been having a decent season until her back problems, reaching two semi-finals on the WTA Tour and climbing back up to 34 in the rankings.

Williams had never missed Wimbledon since her debut in 1997 and was the singles champion at the All England Club in 2000, 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2008.

She suffered her first opening-round defeat last year since 1997 to Elena Vesnina but won the doubles title for a fifth time with Serena.



John McCenroe's plea to see Rafael Nadal seeded in the Top four for Wimbledon, fell in deaf ears as the Spaniard has been seeded fifth going into the third grand Slam of the year.

Speaking the day before the seeds were announced for the grasscourt slam which starts on Monday, the American said it would be "totally wrong" if Nadal had to play world number one Novak Djokovic, defending champion Roger Federer or home favourite Andy Murray in the quarter-finals.



"In my opinion there is no doubt he should be in the top four," American McEnroe said in a conference call arranged by broadcaster ESPN on Tuesday.

"I don't think anyone would be put out, whatsoever. Wimbledon is the only one of the four majors that can change the seedings.

"I don't know how they do it exactly, apparently there's some kind of formula, but clearly he should be one of the top four seeds in my book.

"If he ran into Ferrer in the quarter-finals it would be the same old, same old because Ferrer is used to running into one of the big four in the last eight.

"But if Nadal played Djokovic in the quarters, or possibly Murray or Federer, that would be a big difference, and absolutely wrong for that to happen, in my opinion."

It seems the International Tennis Federation didn't get the memo as the the two times Wimbledon champion was seeded fifth behind fellow Spaniard David Ferrer, despite beating him in the final at Roland Garros. The mathematical formula used to place the top men in the draw did not shift Nadal from his world ranking of No 5.

It means that Murray, top seed Novak Djokovic and defending champion Roger Federer will all look to avoid 2008 and 2010 Wimbledon champion Nadal at the quarter-final stage when the full draw is made on Friday.

On the WTA side, Serena Williams is top seed as defending champion ahead of Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova and Agnieszka Radwanska.

2013 WIMBLEDON CHAMPIONSHIPS SEEDINGS

Gentlemen's Singles

1. Novak Djokovic (Srb)
2. Andy Murray (Gbr)
3. Roger Federer (Sui)
4. David Ferrer (Esp)
5. Rafael Nadal (Esp)
6. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (Fra)
7. Tomas Berdych (Cze)
8. Juan Martin Del Potro (Arg)
9. Richard Gasquet (Fra)
10. Marin Cilic (Cro)
11. Stanislas Wawrinka (Sui)
12. Kei Nishikori (Jpn)
13. Tommy Haas (Ger)
14. Janko Tipsarevic (Srb)
15. Nicolas Almagro (Esp)
16. Philipp Kohlschreiber (Ger)
17. Milos Raonic (Can)
18. John Isner (USA)
19. Gilles Simon (Fra)
20. Mikhail Youzhny (Rus)
21. Sam Querrey (USA)
22. Juan Monaco (Arg)
23. Andreas Seppi (Ita)
24. Jerzy Janowicz (Pol)
25. Benoit Paire (Fra)
26. Alexandr Dolgopolov (Ukr)
27. Kevin Anderson (RSA)
28. Jeremy Chardy (Fra)
29. Grigor Dimitrov (Bul)
30. Fabio Fognini (Ita)
31. Julien Benneteau (Fra)
32. Tommy Robredo (Esp)

Ladies' Singles

1. Serena Williams (USA)
2. Victoria Azarenka (Blr)
3. Maria Sharapova (Rus)
4. Agnieszka Radwanska (Pol)
5. Sara Errani (Ita)
6. Na Li (Chn)
7. Angelique Kerber (Ger)
8. Petra Kvitova (Cze)
9. Caroline Wozniacki (Den)
10. Maria Kirilenko (Rus)
11. Roberta Vinci (Ita)
12. Ana Ivanovic (Srb)
13. Nadia Petrova (Cze)
14. Samantha Stosur (Aus)
15. Marion Bartoli (Fra)
16. Jelena Jankovic (Srb)
17. Sloane Stephens (USA)
18. Dominika Cibulkova (Svk)
19. Carla Suarez Navarro (Esp)
20. Kirsten Flipkens (Bel)
21. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Rus)
22. Sorana Cirstea (Rou)
23. Sabine Lisicki (Ger)
24. Shuai Peng (Chn)
25. Ekaterina Makarova (Rus)
26. Svetlana Kuznetsova (Rus)
27. Varvara Lepchenko (USA)
28. Lucie Safarova (Cze)
29. Tamira Paszek (Aut)
30. Alize Cornet (Fra)
31. Mona Barthel (Ger)
32. Romina Oprandi (Sui)