Graf Faces Tougher Road Than Seles in U.S. Open

NEW YORK —  Top-seeded Steffi Graf’s draw in next week’s U.S. Open is fraught with peril from the first round.

No. 2 Monica Seles, on the other hand, drew a rosy path Thursday as she embarks on her first Grand Slam championship since her return.

The top half of the women’s draw is full of traps for Graf, a three-time winner who lost in the final last year to Arantxa Sanchez Vicario.

Graf begins against Amanda Coetzer, who beat her in the first round last week in the Canadian Open. Also lurking in that part of the draw are Nathalie Tauziat, Chanda Rubin and Helena Sukova.

If Graf gets past that group, she could face Australian Open champion Mary Pierce in the quarterfinals and, perhaps, No. 3 Sanchez Vicario in the semifinals.

Seles, jointly ranked No. 1 with Graf but seeded No. 2, has a breeze by comparison. A week after starting her comeback by winning in Canada, Seles plays in the first round against Ruxandra Dragomir of Romania. The most dangerous players Seles could face before the quarterfinals are Marianne Werdel Witmeyer in the third round and Lori McNeil in the fourth round. Seles is then seeded to face Jana Novotna in the quarters and No. 4 Conchita Martinez in the semifinals.

Top-seeded Andre Agassi, the defending men’s champion, also drew a tough first-round opponent in Bryan Shelton, with the winner perhaps facing two-time champion Stefan Edberg in the third round.

“That’s not an easy start for Andre,” Davis Cup captain Tom Gullikson said, “but he’s playing unbelievable tennis on hard courts this summer. He has a 20-match winning streak. Andre would have to be the favorite to win again.”

Pete Sampras, seeded No. 2, has a chance to exact revenge in the second round against Peruvian Jaime Yzaga, who wore down the two-time champion last year in the round of 16 when Sampras was recovering from an injury.

“Pete hasn’t had a great summer since Wimbledon, but he’s starting to get his game in shape,” Gullikson said. “He has his health this year, which he didn’t have last year.”