Seedings Need Replanting

Grand Slam tennis officials were so pleased by the great seeding solution of 2001--more appropriately termed a legal protection racket--they could hardly contain themselves.

No longer would Andre Agassi have to play (and lose to) someone like Arnaud Clement in the second round last year at the U.S. Open. Venus Williams could play three no-names and round into form, instead of getting ambushed by Barbara Schett in the first round at Paris.

Now, 32 players are seeded at the Slams, instead of 16. Pretty soon everyone will be seeded the way things are going.

Still, they forgot one thing.

If you are going to provide insurance for players, why not give full coverage?

Quite frankly, a transfusion of British arrogance is needed in the USTA. (You may never read that sentence here again.) Wimbledon has the latitude to make adjustments in the seedings, and it’s time the other Slams followed the lead of the All England Club.

This problem came into sharper focus when the U.S. Open draw was made last week. Landing in the same quarter were two-time champion Patrick Rafter of Australia, two-time champion Andre Agassi and four-time winner Pete Sampras.

That sort of bracket is called Group of Death in soccer’s World Cup. And it’s applicable here at the U.S. Open, in what is supposed to be the U.S. showcase for tennis, which starts today. Of two of the game’s legends (Agassi and Sampras) and another superb hard-court player (Rafter), only one has a shot of reaching the semifinals.

Top-seeded Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil has made the quarterfinals in New York once, in 1999. He lost in the first round last year. Defending champion Marat Safin of Russia is No. 3 but has had a worse year than Sampras. At least Sampras has reached three hard-court finals this year, at Indian Wells, Los Angeles and Long Island. Safin’s best summer showing was the semifinals at Indianapolis.

And how much sense does it make that Lleyton Hewitt of Australia and Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain are seeded ahead of Rafter?

Certainly, Agassi vs. Rafter or Agassi vs. Sampras should not be a match played before the final weekend. The women’s draw, of course, is not immune to such problems. Based on 2001 form, the ideal final would be between Wimbledon champion Venus Williams and Australian Open and French Open winner Jennifer Capriati.

At least there is the possibility of the defending champion, Venus Williams, playing her younger sister Serena in the final, which would create substantial interest for the prime-time match.

Serena, the 1999 Open champion, won her first tournament since March, defeating Monica Seles and Capriati on her way to the title in Toronto earlier this month. Trivia experts will be hard-pressed to remember Venus’ lone loss of the summer. Meghann Shaughnessy defeated her in the quarterfinals at Palo Alto. Since then Williams has been overpowering, winning at San Diego and New Haven, Conn., in impressive fashion.

“I think I’m serving better, more consistently,” Venus Williams said. “Since Wimbledon, I believe I’ve had one bad--two bad serving matches. Other than that, the rest have been quite good. So for me, that’s a definite improvement.

“Also, I play a lot smarter. Just the older I get, the smarter, I guess, the wiser. It goes along with my tennis too.”

The women have enough depth to survive the vagaries of the draw. What could salvage the men in the upper half is if Andy Roddick, who will turn 19 on Thursday, makes it into the second week. Roddick has won three titles in 2001 and reached the third round at the French Open and Wimbledon.

“Look, we’ve all been looking for a young American to burst into the top of the men’s game,” U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe said. “We’ve seen them come from other countries--the Hewitts, the Ferreros, the Safins, the young guys come up and burst into the top 10. But we haven’t had an American. Andy is the first guy so far to show he’s ready to take that step. He plays with a lot of flair, passion and intensity.”

The importance of Roddick increased after the lower quarter of the draw turned into a Survivor Episode. It’s amazing to consider that there are 22 Grand Slam singles titles between Sampras, Rafter and Agassi in that section.

For Sampras, who is seeded 10th, it would take a monumental effort to get out of the quarterfinals. He is on track to play Jan-Michael Gambill in the third round and Rafter in the fourth. It is his lowest seeding since 1990, and for the first time in years, he is not considered one of the favorites, let alone one of the main contenders at the Open.

“His record this year has not been good by his standards,” said McEnroe. “He hasn’t won a tournament for more than a year. Can he win? Yeah, he can. Because he’s done it before. He can serve big. But in my mind, he hasn’t been consistent enough from the back of the court. He’s made too many errors. He’s tried to finish points too quickly, and now, he’s got an even more difficult draw.”

Sampras is mired in his longest drought since 1990, a 17-tournament stretch without a title. His last championship came at Wimbledon last year, though he came close to breaking through Sunday in the Long Island final.

Tommy Haas of Germany defeated Sampras, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. The most telling statistic: Haas had 15 aces to six for Sampras. Now Haas is a serviceable player, but he’s not exactly Agassi or Rafter or even Roger Federer, who beat Sampras at Wimbledon.

Sampras, however, was looking for some solace. The last time he played Long Island was in 1990, and he went on to win the Open. Of course he was 19, not 30.

“Hopefully it’s a good omen,” he said. “I needed matches this summer, was a bit up and down, took a wild card here at the last minute. And I think I played pretty well. I hit my stride a little bit, got my game going, served pretty well, so everything is in place.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

U.S. Open

When: Today-Sept. 9

Where: National Tennis Center, New York

Defending champions: Men--Marat Safin, Russia. Women--Venus Williams

TV: Daily coverage on USA network (Today through Sept. 6 and on Sept. 9) and on Channel 2 (Sept. 1-3 and Sept. 7-9).

Purse: $4,505,000. Men’s and women’s singles champions will each receive $850,000. Runners-up will receive $425,000.

MEN’S TOP 16 SEEDS

1. Gustavo Kuerten Brazil

2. Andre Agassi U.S.

3. Marat Safin Russia

4. Lleyton Hewitt Australia

5. Juan Carlos Ferrero Spain

6. Patrick Rafter Australia

7. Yevgeny Kafelnikov Russia

8. Sebastien Grosjean France

9. Tim Henman Britain

10. Pete Sampras U.S.

11. Alex Corretja Spain

12. Arnaud Clement France

13. Roger Federer Switzerland

14. Thomas Johansson Sweden

15. Goran Ivanisevic Croatia

16. Tommy HaasGermany

WOMEN’S TOP 16 SEEDS

1. Martina Hingis Switzerland

2. Jennifer Capriati U.S.

3. Lindsay Davenport U.S.

4. Venus Williams U.S.

5. Kim Clijsters Belgium

6. Justine Henin Belgium

7. Monica Seles U.S.

8. Amelie Mauresmo France

9. Nathalie Tauziat France

10. Serena Williams U.S.

11. Elena Dementieva Russia

12. M. Shaughnessy U.S.

13. Amanda Coetzer South Africa

14. Jelena Dokic Yugoslavia

15. Magdalena Maleeva Bulgaria

16. Silvia Farina Elia Italy

TODAY’S FEATURED MATCHES

Arthur Ashe Stadium

Day session, play begins at 8 a.m.

Martina Hingis (1), Switzerland, vs. Laura Granville

Patrick Rafter (6), Australia, vs. Bob Bryan

Lindsay Davenport (2) vs. Andrea Glass, Germany

Night session, play begins at 4 p.m.

Serena Williams (10) vs. Anca Barna, Germany

Mike Bryan vs. Andre Agassi (2)

*

Louis Armstrong Stadium

Michael Chang vs. Nicolas Lapentti (26), Ecuador

Marissa Irvin vs. Justine Henin (6), Belgium

Sebastien de Chaunac, France, vs. Marat Safin (3), Russia

Nicole Pratt, Australia, vs. Monica Seles (7)

Karim Alami, Morocco, vs. Taylor Dent

*

Grandstand

Barbara Rittner, Germany, vs. Amy Frazier (29)

Jan Vacek, Czech Republic, vs. Tim Henman (9), Britain

Meghann Shaughnessy (12) vs. Rita Grande, Italy

Harel Levy, Israel, vs. Robby Ginepri

Markus Hipfl, Austria, vs. Marcelo Rios, Chile

*

Court 11

Nicolas Kiefer (29), Germany, vs. Rainer Schuettler, Germany

Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario (20), Spain, vs. Petra Mandula, Hungary

Adriana Serra-Zanetti, Italy, vs. Jelena Dokic (14), Yugoslavia

Stefan Koubek, Austria, vs. Andrew Ilie, Australia