Knock out competition draw

[Krypton27]

How do you set out the draw for 16 players who have qualified for the knock out stages of a competition. Does the best qualifier (1) play the worst qualifier (16) etc?

[vehelpfulguy]

This is how the seeding works in Tennis at Wimbledon. Seed 1 plays seed 16, then if they win that they play seed 8, then seed 4 and so on.

This tends to keep the better players in longer, the theory being that seed 1 will beat seed 16, seed 2 will beat seed 15 etc.

It also keeps the better players apart till the later stages of the event, so seeds 1,2,3,4 may make up the semi finals (or at least 2 or 3 of them)

If you do it in say random format, then the danger is that seed 1 and 2 may play each other early, knocking one of the best players out, seed 3 and 4 could do the same and so on.