The Court May Be New, but the Favorites are the Same

By JULIE CART

Aug. 25, 1997 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

NEW YORK —

Coming as it does, at the end of an exhausting tennis season, the U.S. Open usually gets the leftovers of the sport’s storylines. Most of the drama is expended at the three earlier Grand Slam tournaments and the tour limps irritably to the inhospitable environs here, hoping for safe passage through the city and the tournament.

What the Open does is create its own unique interior drama: On the men’s side this year, can top-seeded Pete Sampras win his third Grand Slam title of the year? That question is echoed on the women’s side. Can Martina Hingis, 16, continue to plow through her peers and win her third major of the year?

A new twist is the construction of Arthur Ashe Stadium, a 22,547-seat monster that has sprung up next to the former center court, Louis Armstrong Stadium, and usurped its role.

How will the players and fans react to its hugeness? And, it being the U.S. Open, when will the complaining begin?

Sampras says he loves the facility, tough news for his peers. A comfortable Sampras is a devastating Sampras.

He’s been an unstoppable locomotive this summer, fueled, as ever, by his serve. Beginning at Wimbledon, Sampras has won 189 of 194 service games. The hard, fast courts at the U.S. Tennis Center will only exacerbate the potential damage of his serve.

The draw has been kind to Sampras: The four-time champion will face qualifiers in the first two rounds. Sampras is pleased.

“Pretty ideal,” he said last week, while acclimating himself to Arthur Ashe Stadium. “I had a good break after Wimbledon, had four weeks off. I feel I’ve had plenty of matches. I’ve been in New York for a few days getting used to the stadium and the courts. I feel prepared and ready to go. The preparation has been very good.”

Mercifully, officials chose not to monkey with the seedings as they did so clumsily last year. Then, USTA officials reseeded the men’s side of the tournament so that, for the first time here, the seedings failed to correspond to the rankings. It was a blatant move to appease American television and artificially aid American players.

Thus were Michael Chang and Andre Agassi given protection in the draw, while Thomas Muster was thrown into harm’s way. Chang was moved from No. 3 to No. 2 so that he would avoid crossing paths with Sampras until the final--which is what happened.

Agassi was upgraded from No. 9 to No. 6, to get him out of Sampras’ half of the draw. It failed to protect him from Chang, who defeated Agassi in the semifinals in straight sets.

Muster was demoted from No. 2 to No. 3, succumbed to Agassi, and left muttering about conspiracies.

Playing well has been the best revenge for Muster. The Austrian has put together his most productive hardcourt season and comes into the Open with a 26-5 record. He has been treated fairly and has been rightfully seeded No. 5. However, Muster has been given no breaks and will open against the dangerous Tim Henman of Great Britain.

It is Agassi who again needs protection, but the former U.S. Open champion has slipped well beyond anyone’s efforts to rescue him. He’s No. 59 and unseeded, but caught a break and will face a wild card--Steve Campbell of Detroit--in the first round.

Chang has never played better and will again be seeded No. 2. As he did last year, Chang is making a late-season rush at Sampras’ No. 1 ranking. He and Sampras have each won a tour-leading five titles this year.

Even if he wins, Chang can’t take over as No. 1, but he will position himself for a real chance to gain the ranking he has never attained. Chang’s draw is fairly smooth. He plays Patrik Fredriksson of Sweden in the first round.

Third-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov is as viable a contender as any. The fast-maturing Russian has rebounded from a broken finger that allowed him to play one match in the first 3 1/2 months of the season. The former French Open champion has won 31 of his last 41 matches on hardcourt.

Notably absent from the men’s side is Boris Becker, who won the Open title in 1990. His longtime manager died last week and Becker announced he would not play here, thus ending his Grand Slam tournament career.

Among the women, a handful fall in line after Hingis, who carries her 29-1 hardcourt record into the tournament. She lost to Steffi Graf in the semifinals last year. Because she is recovering from knee surgery, Graf will not defend her title.

Last year’s finalist, Monica Seles, is seeded No. 2 and is riding a hot streak, or was, until a high temperature and virus forced her out of a tournament at Atlanta last week.

That was a strategically fortunate fever if there ever was. Seles had her doubts about a schedule that called for her to play seven weeks in a row, through the Open.

“I’ll have to take it day by day,” Seles said as she left the Manhattan Beach tournament two weeks ago. Seles won that event, won the next week at Toronto, then exited quickly at Atlanta. A week of rest before the Open--in which she has been a finalist for the last two years--is probably the correct prescription.

Skipping third-seeded Jana Novotna, who has done little since straining abdominal muscles in the Wimbledon final, two other players loom as worries for Hingis. Fifth-seeded Amanda Coetzer has outdone Seles’ schedule--she has entered and played in every tournament on the North American hardcourt schedule. The feisty retriever should do well, except against Seles, if they meet in the quarterfinals.

In the top half of the draw is Lindsay Davenport, who comes into the tournament with high hopes every year. The Newport Beach resident should do well on a surface that maximizes her power. She’s yet to get beyond the fourth round. Should that happen, Davenport could face Hingis in the semifinal. It’s not as awful a match as it would be for others--Davenport is one of only two players to defeat Hingis this year.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

U S Open

TODAY’S FEATURED MATCHES

MEN

* Pete Sampras (1) vs.

Todd Larkham, Australia

* Todd Martin vs. Jim Courier

WOMEN

* Chanda Rubin vs.

Tamarine Tanasugarn, Thailand

* Larisa Neiland, Latvia

vs. Venus Williams