Roland Garros tournament director Gilbert Ysern tells L’Equipe that Rafael Nadal’s seeding at Roland Garros will not be upgraded. The seven-time French Open champion’s current ranking is No. 5, just behind compatriot David Ferrer. A Roland Garros committee met over the matter and apparently voted to stick with its usual formula of seeding players based on the rankings.

"Given what is Nadal in Paris, the best player in the history of the tournament, it seemed incongruous that he’d come in here with a number four or five,” Ysern said. “The damage was done, so we would have been talking about fiddling of the draw. What would have been viewed as a strong symbol — actually homage — was being seen as underhanded.”

Ysern also said that Nadal had never formerly applied for a seeding upgrade. In Barcelona last week, Nadal said it was up to the tournament, not him, to decide on the matter.

Nadal still has a slight chance to pass Ferrer in the rankings prior to Roland Garros, but he’s 985 points behind him and is defending champion in Rome. Nadal would need to go deep at both Madrid and Rome and Ferrer would need to falter early at both events for the reigning Roland Garros champion to have a shot of moving up a spot.