The seedings system at Wimbledon has been a source of contention in the past, with Alex Corretja, Albert Costa and Juan Carlos Ferrero even boycotting the tournament in 2000 because they wanted the order to reflect world rankings.
Concerns over the issue of female players effectively being punished for taking time out to have children became high-profile in 2018, when all-time great Serena Williams called for a review of the rules to allow stars who embarked on a maternal hiatus to have their rankings frozen.
Williams had her wish granted as one of the changes that have been made to the method of seeding at Wimbledon over the years.
Will the list reflect the rankings in 2022? How will ranking points work at Wimbledon 2022? The Sporting News takes a look.
How do the Wimbledon seedings work?
Organisers the All England Club admitted they had a "big decision" to make about Williams in 2018, eventually placing the then-world number 449 as their 25th seed.
Williams had been out of the game since giving birth the previous year. There had also been speculation that two-time champion Andy Murray would be seeded, although bosses decided against that after considering the period of inactivity the Scot had been through because of injury.
"The seeding order follows the WTA ranking list, except where, in the opinion of the committee, a change is necessary to produce a balanced draw," the Club told BBC Sport at the time.
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Richard Lewis, the chief executive of the All England Club, added: "We take into account grass-court results from preceding years but the agreement we have with the ATP is based on computer formula."
When they announced the abolition of the formula in 2021, the All England Club said the method had "served its time" for the men's singles draw and also applied the ruling to the women's competition.
The change means that Wimbledon 2022 will be the second edition in which seedings will mirror world rankings.
MORE: Why did Naomi Osaka withdraw from Wimbledon? Tennis star still recovering from Achilles injury
Tennis rankings before Wimbledon 2022
The seedings at Wimbledon will not precisely reflect the rankings because of several significant absentees from this year's tournament.
They include Belarusian world number six Aryna Sabalenka, who reached the semifinals in 2021 but is barred from competing this year because of a ban on Russian and Belarusian players in a decision made by Wimbledon because of the war in Ukraine.
World number 13 Daria Kasatkina, who is Russian, and Belarusian world number 20 Victoria Azarenka, who has won the Australian Open twice, will also not be allowed to appear.
Russians Veronika Kudermetova (world number 22) and Ekaterina Alexandrova (28) will miss out, with players ranked outside the top 32 ascending to become Wimbledon seeds as a result.
Confirmed women's Wimbledon seedings
| Player | Nationality | Ranking |
| Iga Swiatek | Poland | 1 |
| Anett Kontaveit | Estonia | 2 |
| Ons Jabeur | Tunisia | 3 |
| Paula Badosa | Spain | 4 |
| Maria Sakkari | Greece | 5 |
| Karolina Pliskova | Czech Republic | 6 |
| Danielle Collins | USA | 7 |
| Jessica Pegula | USA | 8 |
| Garbine Muguruza | Spain | 9 |
| Emma Raducanu | Great Britain | 10 |
| Coco Gauff | USA | 11 |
| Jelena Ostapenko | Latvia | 12 |
| Barbora Krejcikova | Czech Republic | 13 |
| Belinda Bencic | Switzerland | 14 |
| Angelique Kerber | Germany | 15 |
| Simona Halep | Romania | 16 |
| Elena Rybakina | Kazakhstan | 17 |
| Jil Teichmann | Switzerland | 18 |
| Madison Keys | USA | 19 |
| Anisimova Amanda | USA | 20 |
| Camila Giorgi | Italy | 21 |
| Martina Trevisan | Italy | 22 |
| Beatriz Haddad Maia | Brazil | 23 |
| Elise Mertens | Belgium | 24 |
| Kvitova Petra | Czech Republic | 25 |
| Sorana Cirstea | Romania | 26 |
| Yulia Putintseva | Kazakhstan | 27 |
| Alison Riske | USA | 28 |
| Anhelina Kalinina | Ukraine | 29 |
| Shelby Rogers | USA | 30 |
| Kaia Kanepi | Estonia | 31 |
| Sara Sorribes Tormo | Spain | 32 |
Will ranking points be awarded at Wimbledon 2022?
Announcing the ban on Russian and Belarusian players, the All England Club said: "We share in the universal condemnation of Russia's illegal actions and have carefully considered the situation in the context of our duties to the players, to our community and to the broader UK public as a British sporting institution."
Ian Hewitt, the chairman of the organising body, acknowledged that the ruling was "hard" on the players affected and said it was "with sadness [that] they will suffer for the actions of the leaders of the Russian regime."
The move proved predictably controversial, earning support and condemnation as part of a mixed reaction after the French Open had decided not to bar players from the countries.
The ATP and WTA responded in June by announcing that ranking points will not be awarded for Wimbledon 2022, causing some players, such as former world number one Naomi Osaka, to admit that the decision had caused them to reconsider participating.
2014 Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard announced that she would not be appearing because no ranking points are on offer.
Wimbledon 2022 pic.twitter.com/I4MMGPkfvv
— Genie Bouchard (@geniebouchard) June 17, 2022
World number seven Karolina Pliskova is perhaps the player who will suffer most in terms of ranking points because the Czech will not be able to defend the points she won by reaching the final of the tournament last year, losing to the now-retired Ashleigh Barty.
Some observers have suggested that Wimbledon is effectively an exhibition tournament as a result of the removal of points to play for, although Andy Murray, who will not be seeded, argued on Twitter that the prestige and edge of the competition will not be eroded.
"I follow golf very closely and have no idea how many ranking points the winner of The Masters gets," said the two-time Wimbledon champion. "Me and my friends love football and non of us know or care how many ranking points a team gets for winning the FIFA World Cup.
"But I could tell you exactly who won the World Cup and the Masters. I’d hazard a guess that most people watching on Centre Court at Wimbledon wouldn’t know or care about how many ranking points a player gets for winning a third-round match.
What’s making them nervous in my opinion is the possibility of winning a historic/prestigious event in the sport they love and have trained most of their life for not the thought of ranking points. I think the player field at Wimbledon will reflect this🙂 anyway congrats to all
— Andy Murray (@andy_murray) May 25, 2022
"But I guarantee they will remember who wins. Wimbledon will never be an exhibition and will never feel like an exhibition.
"I could be wrong but I don’t think any tennis player serving for a Slam title, any footballer taking a penalty in a World Cup shootout, or any golfer teeing off on the 18th hole of a major was thinking about ranking points.
"What’s making them nervous, in my opinion, is the possibility of winning a historic and prestigious event in the sport they love and have trained most of their life for, not the thought of ranking points. I think the player field at Wimbledon will reflect this."
