In the last 12 months, Hana Mandlikova won 8 tournaments, reached US Open finals and won Australian Open and Roland Garros. She confirms her status of n. 2 seed by reaching the finals, beating Martina Navratilova before losing to Chris Evert-Lloyd, n. 1 seed.
Following French Open Mandlikova’s victory onto Wimbledon, the All England Club decided to elevate Mandlikova from her computer world ranking position of No. 5 to second seed, demoting Tracy Austin (who had only played her third tournament of the year in winning Eastbourne, after being side-lined by sciatica for four months), Navratilova and Jaeger one place each. A statement released by the WTA said, “We condemn the arbitrary changing of the seeds for the year’s All England Club championships. This marks the first time in recent memory that any tournament has so drastically altered the rankings for seedings in an event and sets a precedent that could open the door for other tournaments to begin a trend that would prove unfair to players in all international competition.” But of course, despite protestations from players and officials alike, the Club’s seeding committee, usually a law onto themselves anyway, was proven correct.
