Tennis - Philippoussis looms for Sampras in U.S. Open .
Bill Berkrot
NEW YORK 1996-08-22
World number one Pete Sampras , seeking his first Grand Slam title of the year , and women 's top seed Steffi Graf , aiming for her third , should be able to ease into the year 's final major , which begins on Monday .
Sampras opens the defence of his U.S. Open crown against David Rikl of the Czech Republic , while top-ranked Graf begins her title defence against Yayuk Basuki of Indonesia .
Wednesday 's U.S. Open draw ceremony revealed that both title holders should run into their first serious opposition in the third round .
Looming in Sampras 's future is a likely third-round date with recent nemesis Mark Philippoussis , the rising Australian who took out Sampras in the third round of the Australian Open in January .
Sampras avenged that defeat with a straight sets win over the 19-year-old power hitter in the second round at Wimbledon and their rubber match in New York could provide some first-week fireworks .
While only a stunning upset will keep Graf from sailing through to a predictable semifinal showdown with third seed Arantxa Sanchez Vicario , the German star could also be tested in the third round where she will probably face 28th-ranked veteran Natasha Zvereva of Belarus .
There will be no repeat of last year 's men 's final with eighth-ranked Andre Agassi landing in Sampras 's half of the draw .
Bumping Agassi up to the sixth seeding avoided the possibility that he would run into Sampras as early as the quarter-finals , but they could lock horns in the semis .
Olympic champion Agassi meets Karim Alami of Morocco in the first round .
Surprise second seed Michael Chang , ranked third in the world , opens against Czech Daniel Vacek , while women 's second seed Monica Seles drew American Anne Miller as her first victim .
Second-ranked Austrian Thomas Muster , who was seeded third , did not have the luck of the draw with him .
In the first round Muster faces American Richey Reneberg , who has been playing some of the best tennis of his career of late .
If he survives , Muster is seeded to run into either fifth-seeded Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek of the Netherlands or 12th-seeded American Todd Martin in the quarter-finals in Chang 's half of the draw .
Perhaps the best , yet most unfortunate , first-round matchup of the men 's competition pits eighth seed Jim Courier against retiring star Stefan Edberg .
The popular Swede is playing his final major tournament next week and the two-time champion 's Grand Slam farewell could well be a one-match affair .
With the exception of a Philippoussis showdown , Sampras looks to have landed in a comfortable quarter of the draw with the likes of Frenchman Cedric Pioline and ailing French Open champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov , who is nursing a rib injury , in his path .
Seles , runner-up to Graf last year , is seeded to run into fifth-ranked German Anke Huber in the quarter-finals with fourth seed Conchita Martinez or eighth-seeded Olympic champion Lindsay Davenport looking like her most likely semifinal opponents .
But Huber will be tested immediately with a first-round encounter against dangerous 18th-ranked South African Amanda Coetzer .
Sanchez Vicario , runner-up to Graf at the French Open and Wimbledon , begins play against a qualifier in a quarter of the draw that includes young talent Martina Hingis , the 16th seed , before a probable quarter-final clash with seventh-seeded veteran Jana Novotna .
Martinez begins play against Ruxandra Dragomir of Romania .
-- Sydney Newsroom 61-2 9373-1800