TENNIS ROUNDUP : Wimbledon Uses Rankings; Martina Rankled

All Martina Navratilova wants is a little respect.

She has won a record nine Wimbledon singles titles and is the defending champion, but when the seedings were announced Monday, Navratilova was seeded fourth.

“I wonder how many times I have to win it?” Navratilova said with more than a trace of sarcasm.

Wimbledon officials strictly followed the world rankings in determining the seeds.

The Press Association, a British news agency, referred to the seedings as the work of “faint-hearted Wimbledon officials” who refused to consider players’ abilities on grass.

“It is a great shame the All England officials have not had more courage, because the seedings could lead to a completely lopsided draw if all the dangerous grass-court floaters are clustered in one half,” the Press Association said.

Navratilova was placed behind Monica Seles, Steffi Graf and Gabriela Sabatini. Seles’ best showing at Wimbledon was a quarterfinal place last year.

Wimbledon has always maintained its right to ignore the world rankings and has done so in recent years to seed players such as John McEnroe higher than their rankings would merit.

But the All England Club stuck to the world rankings this year, rejecting speculation in British newspapers during the weekend that Navratilova would receive the top women’s seeding.

The men’s seedings also go according to ranking, with defending champion Stefan Edberg seeded first and three-time champion Boris Becker seeded second. Ivan Lendl is seeded third, followed by French Open champion Jim Courier and Andre Agassi.

Seeded sixth to 10th among the men are Michael Stich, Guy Forget, Pete Sampras, Michael Chang and Goran Ivanisevic. Emilio Sanchez is 11th, followed by Andrei Cherkasov, Jakob Hlasek, Karel Novacek, Brad Gilbert and John McEnroe.

Among the women, fifth-seeded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario is followed by Mary Joe Fernandez, Jana Novotna, Zina Garrison and Katerina Maleeva. Seeded 10th is Jennifer Capriati, followed by Helena Sukova, Nathalia Tauziat, Natalia Zvereva, Anke Huber, Amy Frazier and Sandra Cecchini.

Navratilova took out her frustration on Amanda Coetzer of South Africa, 6-0, 6-1, in the first round of a tournament at Eastbourne, England.

The fifth-seeded Garrison, who lost the Wimbledon final to Navratilova last year, was forced to withdraw from the tournament because of a strained stomach muscle.

In other matches, Jo Durie of England upset eighth-seeded Amy Frazier, 6-2, 6-3; second-seeded Sanchez Vicario of Spain defeated Claudia Porwik, 6-1, 6-4; third-seeded Fernandez struggled past Nathalie Herreman of France, 6-3, 2-6, 6-1, and fourth-seeded Novotna of Czechoslovakia beat Akiko Kijimuta of Japan, 6-2, 6-2.

Sampras, seeded first, struggled past Christian Bergstrom of Sweden, 7-5, 4-6, 6-2, in the first round of the Manchester Open grass court tournament at Manchester, England.

In other matches, Amos Mansdorf of Israel upset fifth-seeded Goran Prpic of Yugoslavia, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, and sixth-seeded Alexander Volkov of the Soviet Union beat Luiz Mattar of Brazil, 6-2, 7-6 (7-1).