THIS WEEK: Two surprising winners in the lead-up tournaments to the U.S. Open, starting today. Sjeng Schalken was the most surprising, his win in Boston lifting him from 80 to 57 (ATP #79 -> #47). Carlos Moya (up from 26 to 24, ATP #8 -> #6) showed his quality in beating Patrick Rafter in the final of the Hamlet tournament on Long Island.

Both tournament fields appeared to be populated with claycourt regulars trying to find their feet on the hard courts, as evidenced by some of the other quarter-finalists: Corretja, Albert Costa, Tarango, Rios, Gumy, and Alonso.

This could be the year of the claycourter at the U.S. Open. The SRI Rankings Special Issue sees quite a few of them up high, including SRI #11 Thomas Muster at 4! Perhaps he is becoming a hardcourt specialist now ...

Having said that, Sampras is rated odds-on to win. His dominance is not quite the same as Hingis's, but mainly due to the number of players who are capable of challenging him. None of them individually would be considered a big threat, but the weight of numbers might wear him down. Probably all of the players below could win this if other results fall their way. Most of the seeds look solid for a change, with the possible exception of Felix Mantilla, who should be bundled out by Stoltenberg in round one.

SRI Rankings calculates the following odds:

ODDS	Player(s)
9/10	Sampras
7/1	Chang
14/1	A.Costa
15/1	Muster, Courier
20/1	Kafelnikov, Ivanisevic
50/1	Bruguera, Enqvist, Philippoussis, Krajicek
66/1	Moya, Rafter, Rios
100	Larsson, Woodruff, Ulihrach, Rusedski, Corretja
150	Novak, Bjorkman
200	Volkov, Dosedel, Kuerten, Korda, Henman, Pioline

SRI Rankings U.S. Open Special. Hardcourt Only. 25th Aug 1997
Rank	Name	Rating Points	SRI Rank (all surfaces)	Comments
1	Pete Sampras	1372	1	210 points clear on top
2	Michael Chang	1162	2
3	Jim Courier	1152	8
4	Thomas Muster	1093	11
5	Albert Costa	1076	3
6	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	1006	12
7	Goran Ivanisevic	975	4
8	Carlos Moya	966	24
9	Alexander Volkov	921	81	(9 matches only)
10	Chris Woodruff	913	20
11	Sergi Bruguera	911	13
12	Jonas Bjorkman	900	22
13	Jiri Novak	888	34
14	Magnus Larsson	885	17
15	Patrick Rafter	885	15
16	Thomas Enqvist	880	5
17	Bohdan Ulihrach	876	36
18	Richard Krajicek	870	14
19	Marcelo Rios	858	19
20	Mark Philippoussis	852	23
21	Gustavo Kuerten	851	32
22	Slava Dosedel	823	29
23	Tim Henman	822	27
24	Petr Korda	809	16
25	Sjeng Schalken	808	57
26	Vince Spadea	806	72
27	Brett Steven	805	39
28	Mikael Tillstrom	800	80
29	Greg Rusedski	796	10
30	Hendrik Dreekmann	792	64
32	Alex Corretja	779	6	Not his surface
69	Felix Mantilla	624	18	And definitely not Felix's

 

SRI Rankings Top 50 Issue #M28. 25th Aug 1997
Rank	Name	Rating Points	Rank Change	ATP Rank
1	Pete Sampras	1354	0	1
2	Michael Chang	1103	0	2
3	Albert Costa	1064	0	15
4	Goran Ivanisevic	1048	0	4
5	Thomas Enqvist	1037	0	11
6	Alex Corretja	1026	+2	7
7	Boris Becker	1021	-1	13
8	Jim Courier	1020	-1	25
9	Todd Martin	1011	0	49
10	Greg Rusedski	996	+1	20
11	Thomas Muster	996	+2	5
12	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	994	-2	3
13	Sergi Bruguera	987	+1	8
14	Richard Krajicek	987	-2	18
15	Patrick Rafter	950	0	14
16	Petr Korda	941	0	16
17	Magnus Larsson	935	+2	30
18	Felix Mantilla	927	0	12
19	Marcelo Rios	923	+1	10
20	Chris Woodruff	916	+3	29
21	Andrei Medvedev	912	-4	22
22	Jonas Bjorkman	911	0	17
23	Mark Philippoussis	902	-2	19
24	Carlos Moya	899	+2	6
25	Cedric Pioline	885	0	23
26	Jason Stoltenberg	877	+1	56
27	Tim Henman	871	-3	21
28	Mark Woodforde	870	+1	43
29	Slava Dosedel	864	-1	46
30	Thomas Johansson	845	0	33
31	Arnaud Boetsch	835	+2	31
32	Gustavo Kuerten	833	0	9
33	Tommy Haas	833	+1	78
34	Jiri Novak	831	-3	53
35	Magnus Norman	826	0	24
36	Bohdan Ulihrach	823	+1	36
37	Michael Stich	809	+2	48
38	Magnus Gustafsson	799	+5	45
39	Brett Steven	799	+2	60
40	Marc Rosset	792	-2	27
41	Karol Kucera	788	-1	32
42	Jan Siemerink	787	+3	37
43	Alberto Berasategui	787	-1	26
44	Andre Agassi	785	+4	63
45	Julian Alonso	785	+10	61
46	David Prinosil	777	0	44
47	Todd Woodbridge	776	-11	28
48	Marc-Kevin Goellner	770	+8	34
49	Byron Black	769	-2	65
50	Grant Stafford	769	+2	70
51	Marcelo Filippini	768	-2	42
54	Jonathan Stark	760	-10	68
55	Richey Reneberg	760	+16	59
56	Martin Damm	760	-6	49
57	Sjeng Schalken	759	+23	47
97	Wayne Ferreira	647	-33	55

Rating Winners:
Sjeng Schalken	+70	(W Boston 97, 1R Canadian 96)
Richey Reneberg	+50	(QF Hamlet 97, 2R 96)
Chris Woodruff	+25	(2R Canadian 96)
Julian Alonso	+24	(SF Hamlet 97)
Carlos Moya	+19	(W Hamlet 97)

Rating Losers:
Todd Woodbridge	-43	(RU Canadian 96, 2R Hamlet 97)
Andrei Medvedev	-28	(W Hamlet 96, 1R 97)
Jonathan Stark	-24	(QF Hamlet 96, 1R Boston 97)

[ wo - walkover, wd - withdrew, ret - retired, def - defeated ]

blurb version 3.0