WIMBLEDON TOP SEED IS LENDL
CHANG SEEDED NO. 9

Ivan Lendl, coming off his first grass-court tournament triumph since he was a junior, has been seeded No. 1 for next week's Wimbledon tennis championships. But teenager Michael Chang, the first American in 34 years to win the French Open, was only No. 9.

"I don't think it will make any great difference," said Lendl, who is seeking the one Grand Slam title that has eluded him. "To win the title you have to keep winning, and that's what I hope to do."Defending champion Steffi Graf of West Germany was the No. 1 seed in the women's draw by the All-England Lawn Tennis Club.

Lendl and Graf are ranked No. 1 in the world on the Association of Tennis Professional computer lists, and the women's seedings followed the rankings. Eight-time champion Martina Navratilova was seeded second, followed by Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina and three-time winner Chris Evert.

But the 17-year-old Chang, a winner in France, was the biggest loser in the men's seedings. Chang, unranked at Wimbledon last year and seeded 15th in the French Open solely on computer ranking, jumped to No. 6 on this week's ATP list but is seeded only No. 9 at Wimbledon, where he never has made it past the second round.

On the other hand, defending men's champion Stefan Edberg of Sweden got a break. He is ranked third by the ATP but got the No. 2 seed ahead of Boris Becker, a two-time champion and No. 2 on the ATP computer.

Sweden's Mats Wilander was seeded fourth, followed by John McEnroe, shooting for his fourth Wimbledon title, Jacob Hlasek of Switzerland, Miloslav Mecir of Czechoslovakia and Tim Mayotte, who has made it to at least the quarterfinals of eight grass-court Grand Slam tournaments.

Then came Chang, followed by Jimmy Connors, Brad Gilbert, Kevin Curren, Aaron Krickstein, Andrei Chesnokov of the Soviet Union, Sweden's Mikael Pernfors and Amos Mansdorf of Israel.

Behind Evert, the women's seeds are Zina Garrison, Helena Sukova of Czechoslovakia, French Open champion Arantxa Sanchez of Spain, Pam Shriver, Natalia Zvereva of the Soviet Union, Jana Novotna of Czechoslovakia, Monica Seles of Yugoslavia, Mary Joe Fernandez, Canada's Helen Kelesi, Hana Mandlikova of Australia, Lori McNeil and Susan Sloane.

Members of the ATP top 20 who are skipping Wimbledon because of injuries or dislike of grass courts are Andre Agassi, No. 4; Thomas Muster of Austria, No. 7; Alberto Mancini of Argentina, No. 11; Kent Carlsson of Sweden, No. 16; Emilio Sanchez of Spain, No. 18, and Yannick Noah of France, No. 19.

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