Former world's no.1 Roger Federer doesn't think Rafael Nadal still needs the top seeding for him to have a great shot at winning again the French Open title.
The 31-year old Federer said a higher seeding for Nadal won't make any difference at all since the Spaniard has been dominant in the tourney for almost a decade.
"He's been so successful there in the last eight, nine years that everybody knows that he deserves it," Federer told Yahoo Sports. "But it's not like he's ranked 80 in the world and he's going to bump into the seeds or bump into the top four or something like that. Rafa obviously has a great chance because of the great player he is on clay.
Federer, who's set to kick off his clay-court campaign after bowing out to Nadal in the quarterfinal of the Indian Wells Master in March, lauded the French Open committee for sticking with the traditional way of seeding players.
"I'm happy that they took a decision regardless of which one was the right one, just to go with something. Now there is peace and quiet around it again," Federer added.
Nadal also believed there are other players deserving to get the higher seeding than him.
"The players that are in front of me are there because they have been playing better than me," Nadal said in a press conference, according to Yahoo Sports. "Well, in fact they have played. I haven't played and I haven't trained either. Good for them for not being injured. The problem is mine."
Several tennis followers were pushing to give Nadal a higher seeding in an effort to prevent an early quarterfinal clash with world's no.1 Novak Djokovic at Roland Garros.
Nadal, Federer, and Djokovic will all have a chance to gauge up the competition when they play in this week's Madrid Masters.
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