Why are the best tennis players called 'seeds'?

Why are the best tennis players called 'seeds'?
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Answer :

answer: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).
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