THIS WEEK: It's time for one of those issues where the SRI Rankings method is forced to stick its neck out as to who will win the U.S. Open this fortnight. But first, a brief coverage of last week's tournament.

In Atlanta, Lindsay Davenport hit her way into form with a great tournament victory. In the final, she defeated Sandrine Testud 6-4, 6-1, and yet Testud is now up from 20 to 15 on the SRI Rankings Top 50 (WTA #18 last week).

OK, so who will win the U.S. Open? Put your house on Hingis. Of course she's beatable, but only about four times a year on current form, and not easily in New York. Monica Seles has a chance, and should make her way into the final. From there, it's a long way back to the field.

Don't be surprised to see Testud in the quarters. Probably the most interesting little section of the draw in the first week sees Jana Novotna play Yayuk Basuki in round 2, the winner taking on Mirjana Lucic (provided she can win her first Grand Slam match, and her first match off clay!)

SRI Rankings calculates the following odds:

ODDS	Player(s)
4/7	Hingis
5/2	Seles
10/1	Davenport
25/1	Novotna
50/1	Martinez, MJ Fernandez
66/1	Coetzer, Huber
100	Pierce, Testud
200	Majoli
500	Appelmans, Sanchez-Vicario, Po

SRI Rankings U.S. Open Special. Hardcourt Only. 25th Aug 1997
Rank	Name	Rating Points	SRI Rank (all surfaces)	Comments
1	Martina Hingis	1844	1	Miles & miles ahead
2	Monica Seles	1616	4
3	Steffi Graf	1484	3	If only ...
4	Lindsay Davenport	1480	5
5	Jana Novotna	1317	2	Appears out of her element
6	Conchita Martinez	1284	8
7	Mary Joe Fernandez	1283	9
8	Amanda Coetzer	1115	11
9	Sandrine Testud	1111	15	Favoured to beat Majoli in 2R
10	Mary Pierce	1097	7
11	Kimberly Po	1073	16
12	Anke Huber	1014	6
13	Arantxa Sanchez Vicario	1009	13
14	Sabine Appelmans	1008	18	Should knock Kournikova out
15	Irina Spirlea	959	14
16	Amy Frazier	955	29
17	Yayuk Basuki	951	17
18	Jennifer Capriati	930	12
19	Iva Majoli	919	10
20	Dominique van Roost	866	33
21	Marion Maruska	865	59
22	Judith Wiesner	856	26
23	Patty Schnyder	852	22
24	Chanda Rubin	850	20
25	Elena Likhovtseva	848	35
26	Naoko Sawamatsu	848	37
27	Nathalie Tauziat	844	28
28	Barbara Paulus	843	19
29	Lisa Raymond	826	27
30	Venus Williams	817	25
38	Brenda Schultz-McCarthy	664	21
45	Rachel McQuillan	636	83
50	Anna Kournikova	627	30

  Note that the WTA ranks below are one week old.  

SRI Rankings Top 50 Issue #W25. 25th Aug 1997
Rank	Name	Rating Points	Rank Change	ATP Rank
1	Martina Hingis	1753	0	1
2	Jana Novotna	1507	0	3
3	Steffi Graf	1491	0	6
4	Monica Seles	1436	0	2
5	Lindsay Davenport	1367	0	7
6	Anke Huber	1232	0	9
7	Mary Pierce	1224	0	10
8	Conchita Martinez	1197	0	8
9	Mary Joe Fernandez	1154	0	13
10	Iva Majoli	1137	0	4
11	Amanda Coetzer	1131	0	5
12	Jennifer Capriati	1061	0	32
13	Arantxa Sanchez Vicario	1021	0	11
14	Irina Spirlea	1003	0	12
15	Sandrine Testud	1000	+5	18
16	Kimberly Po	988	0	17
17	Yayuk Basuki	972	0	24
18	Sabine Appelmans	965	-3	19
19	Barbara Paulus	960	-1	15
20	Chanda Rubin	955	-1	34
21	Brenda Schultz-McCarthy	921	0	14
22	Patty Schnyder	911	0	29
23	Ruxandra Dragomir	886	0	16
24	Natasha Zvereva	869	0	27
25	Venus Williams	866	0	62
26	Judith Wiesner	858	+1	22
27	Lisa Raymond	857	-1	23
28	Nathalie Tauziat	847	+5	21
29	Amy Frazier	846	+2	37
30	Anna Kournikova	840	-1	25
31	Barbara Schett	817	+1	35
32	Miriam Oremans	816	-4	59
33	Dominique van Roost	815	+1	36
34	Henrieta Nagyova	756	+2	31
35	Elena Likhovtseva	756	+10	26
36	Magdalena Maleeva	746	+1	39
37	Naoko Sawamatsu	741	+2	43
38	Ai Sugiyama	736	+2	30
39	Barbara Rittner	733	+3	54
40	Karina Habsudova	730	-5	20
41	Maria A. Sanchez Lorenzo	727	-3	56
42	Anne-Gaelle Sidot	720	-1	28
43	Elena Makarova	717	+1	96
44	Shi-Ting Wang	706	+3	38
45	Joannette Kruger	704	-2	44
46	Virginia Ruano-Pascual	699	+3	46
47	Nicole Arendt	698	-1	55
48	Sandra Cacic	696	+6	74
49	Asa Carlsson	686	+1	33
50	Helena Sukova	678	-2	49
NQ	Mirjana Lucic	1066	NQ	64
NQ	Marianne Werdel Witmeyer	829	(30)	78
53	Ines Gorrochategui	662	+7	76
70	Patricia Hy-Boulais	595	+17	71

Rating Winners:
Sandrine Testud	+58	(RU Atlanta 97, QF San Diego 96)
Elena Likhovtseva	+38	(2R Atlanta 97, 1R San Diego 96)

Rating Losers:
Karina Habsudova	-55	(2R San Diego 96, 1R Atlanta 97)
Helena Sukova	-30	(1R Atlanta 97)

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

blurb version 3.0