Nadal seeded fifth at Wimbledon

Wimbledon, England – Even though he's the hottest player in men's tennis, reigning French Open champion and two-time Wimbledon titlist Rafael Nadal received only the No. 5 seed at Wimbledon 2013, which will commence Monday at the All England Club.

Nadal's fifth seeding means he could meet top-seeded Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, last year's Wimbledon runner-up and second seed Andy Murray or reigning champ and third seed Roger Federer as early as the quarterfinals at the world's only grass-court Grand Slam event.

French Open runner-up David Ferrer is seeded fourth, followed by Nadal, who may have to beat all of the world's top-three players in order to capture a third Wimbledon championship.

The draw will be held on Friday.

Seeds six-through-10 are former Aussie Open runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 2010 Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych, former U.S. Open titlist Juan Martin del Potro, Richard Gasquet and Marin Cilic. The highest-seeded American is 6- foot-10 John Isner, at No. 18.

Wimbledon's seeding order is determined using the ATP World Tour rankings and points are added for achievements in grass-court tournaments over the past 12 months.

The All England Club could have moved Nadal up to No. 4 ahead of Ferrer, but decided not to.

Nadal has reached nine finals in as many events since returning to action back in February, capturing seven titles. The 12-time Grand Slam champion was sidelined with a knee injury for seven months after suffering a shocking second-round loss against then little-known Czech Lukas Rosol at last year's Wimbledon extravaganza.

The Spanish great captured his fourth straight and record eighth overall men's French Open title two weeks ago by beating Ferrer in an all-Spanish finale, this after outlasting Djokovic in an epic five-set semifinal on the red clay at Roland Garros.

The six-time major titlist Djokovic beat Nadal in the Wimbledon final two years ago. Nadal has reached the final in five of his last six trips to the All England Club (2-3).

Federer secured a record-tying seventh men's Wimbledon title and men's-record 17th overall Grand Slam championship a year ago by beating Murray in the final.