Today’s Men’s News (08/26)- U.S. Open

Written by: Staff on 26th August 2012

Today's Men's News (08/26)- U.S. Open

epa03334626 Andy Murray of Britain in action during his Men's Singles Quarterfinal match against Nicolas Almagro of Spain at the London 2012 Olympic Games Tennis competition in Wimbledon, Greater London, Britain, 02 Augst 2012. EPA/ANDY RAIN |

Independent Agreement

There really doesn’t seem to be much dispute that Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray deserve to be the top seeds at the U. S. Open. But it’s interesting to wonder who deserves the next few spots. We frequently hear people argue that Slam history should play a bigger role in seeding the Slams. Without in any way endorsing the concept, we can certainly do that. Instead of counting all of a man’s points to determine his U. S. Open seed, we’ll take his points just from the last four Slams (U. S. Open 2011 through Wimbledon 2012). If we do that, we get this:

1. Djokovic: 5920

2. Nadal: 4445

3. Federer: 4160

4. Murray: 3000

5. Ferrer: 1620

5. Tsonga: 1620

7. Del Potro: 990

8. Tipsarevic: 720

9. Almagro: 640

9. Berdych: 640

11. Kohlschreiber: 595

12. Gasquet: 585

13. Isner: 505

13. Roddick: 505

15. Mayer: 495

16. Youzhny: 470

17. Monaco: 460

17. Nishikori: 460

19. Fish: 405

20. Benneteau: 360

20. Cilic: 360

20. Simon: 360

23. Dolgopolov: 325

23. Granollers: 325

23. Wawrinka: 325

26. Lopez: 290

27. Anderson: 280

27. Goffin: 280

27. Istomin: 280

27. Kukushkin: 280

27. Tomic: 280

27. Troicki: 280

27. Verdasco: 280

Interesting to see Federer down at #3. Of course, he was struggling a bit at Slams until Wimbledon….

Note all those interesting ties, starting at #5. And that one matters, because with Rafael Nadal out, either David Ferrer or Jo-Wilfried Tsonga would be promoted to the #4 seed. Presumably it would be Ferrer because of his higher overall ranking.

There is a tie at #9 that also matters: Should Almagro or Berdych get the #8 seed? Berdych would win based on his ATP ranking.

That means that, so far, seeding by Slams would not produce a move that affects a seeding tier. In the #9-#12 block, though, we get one that does affect things: Notice that Philipp Kohlschreiber is in this block; he is two tiers lower in the actual draw. (Yes, we were surprised, too. But remember, he made the Wimbledon quarterfinal and the Australian Open Round of Sixteen.)

And we had another tie to break at #13. John Isner would win that to get the #12 seed, with Andy Roddick stuck at #13. And, yet again, there is a tie at #17; Juan Monaco would win that. Amazing that there are three instances of ties that matter only because Nadal is out.

Interestingly, there are two ties below that that don’t matter because Nadal is out. The tie for #23-#25 would matter if Nadal were in the draw, but because he is absent, Dolgopolov, Granollers, and Wawrinka can all be seeded in the #17 to #24 block. There is also a tie for #27-#33, which would leave someone (Kukushkin) unseeded if Nadal were in the draw. With Nadal out, Kukushkin (yes, Kukushkin!) gets a seed.

Kukushkin isn’t the only shocker under this system. Not that Goffin and Tomic would also be seeded. So seeding by Slams would certainly make a difference in the seed list. Whether that would make more difference than, say, seeding by surface, or simply getting a better-quality ranking system, is altogether another question….

KEYWORDS: Seeding by Slams