Serena Williams seeded No. 2 behind Dinara Safina at US Open; Federer leads men for 5th time

S.Williams No. 2 to Safina in US Open seedings

Defending champion Serena Williams was seeded No. 2 for the U.S. Open on Tuesday, behind Dinara Safina, because the tournament stuck to its policy of strictly following the rankings.

Roger Federer was seeded No. 1 for the fifth time at the year’s last Grand Slam tournament. He is ranked No. 1 and has won the U.S. Open five years in a row.

Safina is No. 1 in the WTA computer, which calculates rankings based on performances across tournaments over the preceding 52 weeks. The younger sister of former men’s No. 1 Marat Safin is still seeking her first Grand Slam title. She is 0-3 in major finals, including a loss to Williams at the Australian Open in January.

Williams has won three of the past four Grand Slam singles championships and 11 overall, the most among active women. She will be seeking her fourth U.S. Open title.

Tournament director Jim Curley said the U.S. Tennis Association did discuss the possibility of moving Williams ahead of Safina.

“The U.S. Open has the prerogative of altering its seedings; it’s something we have not availed ourselves of in quite some time,” Curley said in a telephone interview. “We certainly spoke about it, but it never got to the point where we were seriously intending to not follow the rankings.”

Since 1997, the USTA has matched its seedings to the ATP and WTA rankings.

“The players do earn their rankings over a 12-mointh period, both at Grand Slams and non-Grand Slam events. At the end of the day, whether you’re seeded No. 1 or seeded No. 2 at the U.S. Open, it really doesn’t matter. You’re either at the top of the draw or the bottom of the draw, and the rest of the draw is determined by a coin toss,” Curley said. “From a competition perspective, there really isn’t any difference being seeded 1 or 2.”

The draw will be announced Thursday, and the tournament begins Monday.

After the top two women, two-time U.S. Open champion Venus Williams is No. 3, followed by Beijing Olympics gold medalist Elena Dementieva and 2008 U.S. Open runner-up Jelena Jankovic.

Maria Sharapova is No. 29 — barely earning one of the 32 seedings after rising from No. 49 in the rankings last week. She won the 2006 U.S. Open for one of her three major titles but missed the tournament last year because of a right shoulder injury. The Russian had surgery in October and a long absence from the tour dropped her ranking.

Sharapova is among a dozen Grand Slam singles champions seeded at this year’s U.S. Open. One major champion in the field but not seeded is 2005 U.S. Open winner Kim Clijsters, who recently came out of retirement and received a wild card from the USTA.

“This year was very interesting because not only did you have the Dinara-Serena situation but you also had … Maria Sharapova, a former champion here, who might have been unseeded, and then you also had Kim Clijsters, who only has two tournaments on the computer and therefore doesn’t even have a ranking,” Curley said. “We looked at those two, as well, and still ultimately decided to continue to follow the rankings.”

After Federer in the men’s seedings are 2008 U.S. Open runner-up Andy Murray, six-time major champion Rafael Nadal, 2007 U.S. Open runner-up Novak Djokovic and 2003 U.S. Open champion Andy Roddick.

NOTE: French Open semifinalist Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia withdrew from the U.S. Open, citing a rib injury. She is No. 16 in this week’s rankings.