Wimbledon Seedings Place Lendl, Graf at No. 1; Chang Is Ninth

WIMBLEDON, England —  Ivan Lendl and Steffi Graf were given the No. 1 seedings at Wimbledon Monday, but grass-court experience was a major factor in raising the position of John McEnroe and dropping French Open champion Michael Chang.

Chang, who moved from 19th to sixth in the Assn. of Tennis Professionals rankings after the French Open, is seeded ninth by the All England Lawn Tennis Club. Chang, 17, lost all four of his matches in a recent round-robin grass-court tournament in the Netherlands and has not made it past the second round at Wimbledon.

Among the players ranked behind Chang but seeded ahead of him at Wimbledon are: McEnroe (seeded fifth, ranked eighth), Jakob Hlasek of Switzerland (sixth, ninth), Miloslav Mecir of Czechoslovakia (seventh, 10th) and Tim Mayotte (eighth, 12th).

If the June 26-July 9 tournament follows form, Lendl will play fourth-seeded Mats Wilander of Sweden in the semifinals, and No. 2 Stefan Edberg will face No. 3 Boris Becker.

Also benefiting from his grass-court record was Kevin Curren, who is ranked 17th but seeded 12th. Other American players receiving seedings are Jimmy Connors (10th), Brad Gilbert (11th) and Aaron Krickstein (13th).

Among those men skipping Wimbledon are Andre Agassi of Las Vegas, Thomas Muster of Austria, Alberto Mancini of Argentina, Kent Carlsson of Sweden, Emilio Sanchez of Spain and Yannick Noah of France.

In the women’s draw, seedings would result in semifinals featuring Graf against No. 4 Chris Evert and No. 2 Martina Navratilova against No. 3 Gabriela Sabatini.

Arantxa Sanchez, the 17-year-old Spaniard who beat Graf for the French Open women’s title, is seeded seventh. Florida-based Yugoslav Monica Seles is seeded 11th.