Scanlon jumps in rankings

Press, 24 December 1986, Page 34

Scanlon jumps in rankings

PA Auckland An American, Bill Scanlon, the 1981 Benson and Hedges Open tennis champion, has jumped into the seedings for next month’s tournament in Auckland. The eight seeds for the Nabisco grand prix event are determined on their world rankings closest to the January 5 starting date. Since the entries closed at the grand prix office in the United States earlier this month, a number of changes have occurred in the rankings of the leading players who have gained direct entry into the tournament. Subsequently, the seed-, ings have changed for the men’s singles championship and Scanlon has made the biggest move, coming from No. 11 on the entry list into the seedings at No 8. The 30-year-old righthanded Texan, whose ranking was as high as No. 12 in 1983, has climbed from No. 94 to No. 87 on the world listings in the last fortnight.

He has gained his place in the seedings at the expense of a Dutchman, Michiel Schapers, who has dropped right out from his original listing at five. The world ranking of Schapers, who upset Boris Becker in last year’s Australian Open, has plunged from 67 to 89, mainly because 44 of his ATP points have dropped off in the 12-monthly cycle. He is now tenth on the Auckland list. The top four seeds remain the same, headed by the Czechs, Miloslav Mecir and Milan Srejber. They are followed by Marcel Freeman (U.S.) and Ramesh Krishnan (India). Derrick Rostagno (U.S.) jumps two places to No. 5, an Australian, Wally Masur, holds his sixth seeding while Duke Odizor, of Nigeria, climbs one spot to No. 7 and Scanlon comes in as the eighth seed. But the tournament director, Peter Gardner, stresses the seedings could change further in the next 10 days.