Why are the best tennis players called 'seeds'?
Asked by
nellybar (
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September 15th, 2010
When watching the sports news on the US Open the other day, they refered to some players as ‘seeds’. Does anyone know why they use this particular term? I understand what they are, I’m just interested to know the origin of the word used in tennis.
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3 Answers
To seed is to sow or to spread seeds around. When you seed a tournament, you are spreading around the best “seeds” or best players. You don’t want them to meet and be knocked out early on in the tournament.
From the FreeDictionary:
7. Sports
a. To arrange (the drawing for positions in a tournament) so that the more skilled contestants meet in the later rounds.
b. To rank (a contestant) in this way.
From the Online Etymology Dictionary:
seed (n.)
O.E. sed, sæd, from P.Gmc. *sædis, *sæda- (cf. O.N. sað, O.S. sad, O.Fris. sed, M.Du. saet, O.H.G. sat, Ger. Saat), from root *sæ- “to sow,” from PIE base *se- “to sow” (see sow (v.)). Meaning “offspring, progeny” was in O.E., rare now except in biblical use. Sporting (originally tennis) sense is from notion of spreading certain players’ names so as to insure they will not meet early in a tournament (1924).
The were referring to their placement in a tournament, not to the players themselves.
The top ranked player would be the “first seed”
This goes for any sport with bracketed tournaments, not just tennis.
Oh right, thanks to you both! That’s most enlightening! :-)
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