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By The Associated Press
Arizona Daily Wildcat
August 22, 1996
NEW YORK - If the idea of the U.S. Open draw is to predict who will meet in the final, then rigging the seedings to favor certain players could be a self-fulfilling prophecy.Michael Chang got just that kind of a favor yesterday, moving up to the No. 2 seeding in the most recent slap at Thomas Muster, the ATP Tour computer rankings and tradition.
So, too, did Goran Ivanisevic, Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek and former U.S. Open champ Andre Agassi get help - all courtesy of the seeding committee's decision to drop French champ Yevgeny Kafelnikov from No. 4 in the rankings to No. 7 in the tournament.
The idea of dumping strict adherence to the ATP Tour rankings wasn't supposed to be to give the more popular players a better chance at winning, though that's the way it turned out.
After following the men's rankings virtually number for number since they began in 1973, the U.S. Open pulled a switch and bumped up No. 3 Chang ahead of No. 2 Muster for the year's final Grand Slam event starting Monday.
For the past two decades, Wimbledon has been alone among the majors in occasionally departing from the computer rankings, giving a boost to grass court specialists. This year, Wimbledon dropped Muster from No. 2 to No. 7, and he promptly withdrew, claiming he suffered an injury greater than the insult.
The hardcourts of the U.S. Open are more neutral than the fast grass or the French Open's slow clay, and going with the rankings has long been deemed fair.
Not this year.
Chang, on a hot streak since Wimbledon, now has perhaps his best chance of going to the U.S. Open final for the first time. He'll play Daniel Vacek in the first round and is seeded to meet No. 15 Marc Rosset in the quarters.
''I don't know why they needed to do it, but I expect there will be some people upset over it,'' Chang said of the seedings. ''Wimbledon has been the only tournament to do it (not seed according to rankings), but I'm not sure if it's OK or not.''
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