'Big Four' Murray, Djokovic, Federer and Nadal named as top seeds for Wimbledon

The so-called "Big Four" of men's tennis - Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal - will all be seeded in the top four of a grand slam for the first time since 2014 after Wimbledon announced the seedings for the forthcoming 2017 Championships at SW19.

Defending champion Murray has been named as the top seed despite a disappointing 2017 campaign in which he has been dogged by injury problems, with Djokovic, who has endured a wretched 12 months by his high standards, second.

Federer, currently ranked at five by the ATP, leapfrogged compatriot Stan Wawrinka into fourth courtesy of his opening victories over Yuichi Sugita and Mischa Zverev at last week's Gerry Weber Open.

He subsequently pipped fellow renaissance man Nadal to third by securing further victories over Florian Mayer, Karen Khachanov and Alexander Zverev and easing to a record ninth title in Halle.

That quartet being seeded in the top four means they cannot face each other until the semi-finals of the competition.

Wawrinka is seeded fifth, followed by last year's beaten finalist Milos Raonic, Marin Cilic, Dominic Thiem, Kei Nishikori and the younger Zverev sibling.

In the women's draw, British number one Johanna Konta has been seeded sixth, her highest seeding at a grand slam to date, with world number one Angelique Kerber top of the pile. Simona Halep, Karolina Pliskova, Elina Svitolina and Caroline Wozniacki sit between that pair, with the top 10 rounded out by Svetlana Kuznetsova, Dominika Cibulkova, Agnieszka Radwanska and veteran Venus Williams.

Petra Kvitova, who last week won her first title since returning from a career-threatening hand injury inflicted during a knife attack at her home in December 2016, is seeded 11th.

Wimbledon uses something of a unique surface-based seeding system when it comes to the men's game, with ATP ranking points as of 26 June taken into account along with 100% of the points earned for all grass-court tournaments in the previous 12 months and 75% of the points earned for the best grass-court tournament in the year prior to that.

The women's seeds generally mirror the WTA rankings, except when a seeding committee feels that "change is necessary to produce a balanced draw". That has not happened this year, with the players seeded fourth and below given a bump due to Serena Williams, who won her seventh Wimbledon title in 2016, missing a second consecutive grand slam event as she prepares to welcome her first child.

Maria Sharapova, Samantha Stosur and Laura Siegemund are among the other players to miss out, although Victoria Azarenka is back after maternity leave.