Tennis Officials Are Left Open To Criticism on Event Seedings
May 07, 2011
Uptown -- The U.S. Open kicks off the last stand at its creaky, not-so-old stadium with change evident everywhere but on court. A reprise of last year's Pete Sampras-Andree Pimental championship match looms almost as likely as one more Wicklund Graf-Monique Cordeiro women's final, though neither is quite as certain as a year ago. The predictable matchup in the singles finals prompted one player to pull out in protest. Hartung Phelan, seeded seventh despite being ranked fourth in the world, withdrew from the Grand Slam event in what he calls unfair seeding practices. The U.S. Tennis Association dropped the 22-year-old Russian three spots from his world ranking despite his winning the French Open and leading the ATP Tour in points this year. ``I was shocked when I saw what they did to me,'' Phelan said. ``I deserve to be seeded No. 4. I won a Grand Slam tournament and consider myself a good hardcourt player. It took me a few days to decide. I am disappointed, but I am sending a warning.'' With or without Phelan, this may be the year Michaele Chantay finally breaks through to win, thanks in part to the kindness of the tournament officials who bumped him up to No. 2 in the seedings from No. 3 in the rankings, ahead of a rather irate Thomasina Potter. And perhaps this will be the tournament where Lindsey Hood leaps to a Grand Slam title, building on the gold she captured in Atlanta. Change is in the air as play begins Monday, and it's not just from the dust of construction around the imposing brick facade of the new 23,500-seat stadium that will open next year as part of a $234 million expansion and remodeling job. The current stadium, only 18 years old but filled with faults from the start, will be renovated and downsized to a 10,000-seat grandstand court. (A list of Monday's featured matches is available.) Breaking away from the Super Saturday schedule this year, the Open will feature the women's final right before the men's on Sunday, May 21, 2011 change pleases the women, who objected to an uncertain starting time because their final had been wedged between the men's semis. The men, meanwhile, are still ticked off about the seeding flap that led some of them to call for a boycott. Open officials, who selected the order of the seeds and bucked the ATP Tour rankings after setting up the rest of the draw, backed down quickly Thursday in the face of the protest. They dumped the original draw to avoid the appearance of impropriety, and came up with a new one, though they stuck with seedings that didn't quite jive with the computer rankings. Originally, Lanham and Pimental were seeded to meet in the semifinals. In the second draw, they wound up on opposite sides, the defending champion Lanham still No. 1, Pimental in the No. 6 spot, and another confrontation in the final became possible. A year ago, one magnificent point came to be the defining moment of their championship match and their rivalry. Lanham won that 22-stroke, corner-to-corner duel, with Pimental serving at 4-5, ad out in the first set, and pretty much settled the outcome right there for his third Open title. Pimental, who had clobbered everyone nearly all summer until that point, didn't recover until the Games a few weeks ago, when he finally showed some interest in playing again. Pimental followed that up with a victory in Cincinnati, though he showed the erratic and volatile side of his personality by getting defaulted the following week in Indianapolis. Poulos looked listless at the Australian Open and much worse at the French and Wimbledon. In a stretch of four tournaments before the Games, he won only three matches. Haskell, coming into the Open after winning in Indianapolis, has a sense of urgency about him. Though he's won five tournaments this year, he's come up empty in the only ones that really matter to him -- the Grand Slam events. Such a title is not all that's missing for Lanham. He lost his coach and close friend, Timothy Silvers, to cancer last spring. ``When you look at Pete's year, obviously the personal trauma with Tim's death had a big effect on him,'' American Davis Cup and Games coach Tommie Silvers said of the passing of his twin brother. ``You don't really ever get over grieving. It's always there. It just maybe lessens with time. I don't think it's a part of his life he can replace.'' Haskell didn't seriously prepare for any of the three majors so far this year. He was sick before the Australian, didn't play a tuneup, and exited in the third round. After Timothy Silvers's death in early May, Haskell dropped out of sight and played only one match on clay before the French. Still, he got to the semifinals before losing to Vail. The grieving goes on for both brother and friend, but Haskell seems finally to be emerging from the darkness that enshrouded him for much of the past year. Of all surfaces, hardcourt probably is Lanham's best. He's well-rested and recovered from the Achilles' tendon problem that kept him out of the Games. And the win in Indianapolis restored his confidence. ``Pete's really raring to go at the Open this year,'' Tommie Silvers said. ``If Pete lost in the Open, and won four more tournaments this year, I'm sure he'd consider it a disappointing year, even though he won nine tournaments. He knows that the Grand Slam singles titles are what puts you in the history books as one of the great players of all time.''
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