Stefan Edberg's final U.S. Open keeps getting tougher - and the tournament doesn't start until Monday.
In an unprecedented move sparked by the threat of a player boycott, the U.S. Tennis Association on Thursday remade the men's draw for the year's final Grand Slam tournament."I hope that we are getting across a very strong message by having this redraw," Les Snyder, president and chief executive officer of the USTA, said. "The main idea is that we must do what we believe is best for the sport of tennis and we must do what is best for the U.S. Open."
The draw for the 128-player men's field - minus the 16 seeds - was made in a non-public meeting Tuesday night. The next morning, at a public draw ceremony, the seeded players were announced and their names were selected from a cup to determine exactly where they would be placed in the draw.
In naming the seeds, the U.S. Open made three changes from the ATP Tour rankings, which only the four Grand Slam tournaments are allowed to do, and drew the ire of the players.
Mark Miles, chief executive officer of the ATP Tour, said virtually every player who heard about how the draw was conducted objected to it because it left open the possibility that it could have been rigged to favor certain American players, notably Michael Chang and Andre Agassi.
"Some players felt if the draw stood, the players should not play," Miles said.
Particular incensed was Thomas Muster of Austria, who was dropped from No. 2 in the rankings to No. 3 in the seedings behind No. 1 Pete Sampras and No. 2 Chang. Muster noted that because of his switch with Chang, and Agassi's move up from No. 8 in the rankings to No. 6 in the draw, it assured that Agassi could not meet Sampras nor Chang before the semifinals.
"This isn't brain surgery," said Muster, noting the top two seeds are placed to play Nos. 7 and 8 in the quarterfinals, while the Nos. 3 and 4 seeds would play Nos. 5 and 6.
Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia, ranked fourth in the world, was dropped to seventh in the seedings. With No. 5 Boris Becker out of the tournament with a wrist injury, sixth-ranked Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia was moved to fourth in the seedings, No. 7 Richard Krajicek of the Netherlands to fifth and No. 8 Agassi to sixth.
Another change knocked 16th-ranked Felix Mantilla from the seedings, making Switzerland's Marc Rosset No. 15 and France's Cedric Pioline No. 16.
In Thursday's redraw, Agassi was dropped from the top bracket, where he could have played Sampras in the semifinals, to the bottom half of the draw, where his semifinal opponent could be Chang. With the new draw, Sampras and Agassi could have a rematch of last year's title match.
The day's biggest loser, however, might have been Edberg, a two-time U.S. Open champion who was originally drawn to face eighth-seeded Jim Courier in this, his final Grand Slam tournament before retiring. Edberg's first-round foe now will be Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek, the No. 5 seed.