Faced with growing pressure from the players and their agents, the sponsors and, most importantly, the commercial television companies, the four grand-slam tournaments yesterday announced an extension of seeding protection for the world's top players. So instead of 16 seeds in the singles tournaments at Wimbledon this year, there will be 32.

The decision was driven less by a threatened Wimbledon boycott by some of the leading clay-court players than by US television's overwhelming desire not to see leading players go out in the first few days, as happened at this year's French Open when Venus Williams was knocked out on the first Monday by Barbara Schett, then ranked No 24.

The reform would remove the possibility of two such highly ranked players meeting in the first two rounds and gives the leading competitors a better chance of reaching the second week. Under the new system the top players will not face a player ranked higher than number 33 until at least the first Friday.

And, as a corollary, all four slams, and not just Wimbledon, will now have the opportunity to seed their own tournaments. This undoubtedly means that Pete Sampras, winner of seven Wimbledon titles and ranked number four in the world, will be the number one seed when play begins on June 25th and that Tim Henman, ranked 11th, will be shifted upwards, probably to number seven or eight.

Mark Miles, the chief executive of the ATP, the men's professional ruling body, welcomed the decision while questioning whether it would be necessary to evaluate surface performance so closely at the US and Australian opens, which are both played on hard courts.

Wimbledon is to use an objective formula for the men's seedings, which takes into account a player's record on grass since June 1997. The women's seeding is unlikely to deviate from the rankings this year, but will be reviewed during the next 12 months.

All England club officials have been unable to talk with Gustavo Kuerten, the world number one and newly-crowned French Open champion, who began talk of boycotting Wimbledon at the start of this year's clay-court season in Monte Carlo, claiming the tournament, by not sticking rigidly to the rankings, was "disrespectful" to the players. He has since claimed he needs to rest during Wimbledon.