THIS WEEK: Patrick Rafter made it three hardcourt titles from four attempts this season with a win in the Hamlet Cup. This, and the fact that he is defending champion at Flushing Meadows, is enough to earn him _favouritism_ for the U.S. Open! He is rated an outstanding #1 on hardcourts, #4 overall (ATP #3 last week), and a 4/1 chance in the SRI Rankings calculated book for the Open. Pete Sampras is not far behind, while Rios, Agassi, Korda, Krajicek, and Kucera make formidable competition. The winner will most likely come from those seven.

The following odds are surface-weighted, and use the full U.S. Open draw, with qualifiers.

ODDS	Player(s)
4/1	Rafter
9/2	Sampras
8/1	Rios
9/1	Agassi, Korda
10/1	Krajicek
12/1	Kucera
20/1	Bjorkman
25/1	Rusedski
33/1	Corretja, Larsson, Chang
50/1	Henman, Costa, Stoltenberg
66/1	Ivanisevic
100	Pioline, Mantilla, Kiefer
125	Martin, Kafelnikov, B.Black
150	Gustafsson, Carlsen
200	Philippoussis, Ferreira

SRI Rankings U.S. Open Special. Hardcourt Only. 31st Aug 1998
Rank	Name	Rating Points	SRI Rank (all surfaces)	Comments
1	Patrick Rafter	1193	4	Much more consistent now
2	Pete Sampras	1105	1	You bet he wants this
3	Andre Agassi	1100	2	First round may surprise
4	Petr Korda	1068	6
5	Karol Kucera	1059	8
6	Marcelo Rios	1049	3
7	Richard Krajicek	1027	7
8	Thomas Enqvist	1006	5
9	Jonas Bjorkman	985	12
10	Greg Rusedski	974	10
11	Alex Corretja	922	13
12	Michael Chang	899	23
13	Magnus Larsson	896	15
14	Sebastien Grosjean	891	60	ATP #96 last week!
15	Goran Ivanisevic	872	24
16	Tim Henman	860	14
17	Jason Stoltenberg	848	21
18	Cedric Pioline	831	17
19	Nicolas Kiefer	823	33
20	Todd Martin	822	20
21	Kenneth Carlsen	819	42
22	Jeff Tarango	806	40
23	Byron Black	805	28
24	Wayne Ferreira	802	31
25	Felix Mantilla	799	19
26	Magnus Gustafsson	788	18
27	Guillaume Raoux	787	58
28	Justin Gimelstob	786	44
29	Hicham Arazi	781	55
30	Thomas Muster	768	27
33	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	758	25	No real threat
37	Albert Costa	741	9	Rated #5 on h/c last year
49	Mark Philippoussis	713	22	Surprisingly poor on h/c

SRI Rankings Top 50 Issue #M66. 31st Aug 1998
Rank	Name	Rating Points	Rank Change	ATP Rank
1	Pete Sampras	1189	0	1
2	Andre Agassi	1151	0	8
3	Marcelo Rios	1132	0	2
4	Patrick Rafter	1127	0	3
5	Thomas Enqvist	1087	0	18
6	Petr Korda	1073	0	4
7	Richard Krajicek	1068	0	5
8	Karol Kucera	1030	0	9
9	Albert Costa	1007	0	16
10	Greg Rusedski	985	+2	6
11	Boris Becker	981	0	59
12	Jonas Bjorkman	978	-2	12
13	Alex Corretja	965	0	7
14	Tim Henman	957	0	13
15	Magnus Larsson	932	+1	34
16	Carlos Moya	928	-1	10
17	Cedric Pioline	922	+4	17
18	Magnus Gustafsson	921	-1	23
19	Felix Mantilla	921	-1	19
20	Todd Martin	911	-1	26
21	Jason Stoltenberg	897	-1	38
22	Mark Philippoussis	894	0	21
23	Michael Chang	888	+1	22
24	Goran Ivanisevic	884	-1	14
25	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	882	0	11
26	Alberto Berasategui	858	0	15
27	Thomas Muster	849	+1	24
28	Byron Black	843	+1	31
29	Tommy Haas	840	-2	41
30	Thomas Johansson	838	0	33
31	Wayne Ferreira	833	0	29
32	Gustavo Kuerten	831	+6	27
33	Nicolas Kiefer	830	-1	25
34	Jan Siemerink	822	-1	20
35	Francisco Clavet	821	0	28
36	Richard Fromberg	819	-2	30
37	Younes El Aynaoui	810	+4	118
38	Dominik Hrbaty	805	+1	39
39	Bohdan Ulihrach	799	-3	35
40	Jeff Tarango	797	-3	66
41	Fabrice Santoro	785	-1	32
42	Kenneth Carlsen	776	+6	67
43	Andrei Medvedev	773	+1	71
44	Justin Gimelstob	771	-1	88
45	Slava Dosedel	769	-3	61
46	Scott Draper	766	-1	46
47	Mark Woodforde	765	-1	70
48	Paul Haarhuis	764	+11	85
49	Marat Safin	753	+16	72
50	Daniel Vacek	748	+4	44
51	Andrea Gaudenzi	743	-4	36
52	Andrew Ilie	738	-2	52
53	Nicolas Escude	734	+7	40
60	Sebastien Grosjean	721	+20	96
64	Hernan Gumy	716	-15	104

Rating Winners:
Sebastien Grosjean	+41	(SF Boston 98)
Paul Haarhuis	+40	(RU Boston 98, 1R 97)
Marat Safin	+38	(SF Hamlet 98)
Gustavo Kuerten	+26	(QF Hamlet 98, 2R 97)

Rating Losers:
Hernan Gumy	-28	(QF Boston 97, 1R 98)
Carlos Moya	-24	(W Hamlet 97, 2R 98)
Andrea Gaudenzi	-22	(1R Boston 98)

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

blurb version 3.0