NEW YORK -- Gustavo Kuerten was asked Wednesday if he liked the United States Tennis Association's new seeding process that doubles the number of seeded players to 32 from 16.

A grin spread across his face.

"Sixteen -- I think there's more interesting match[es] in the beginning," he said. "A little bit more fun, I thought."

Fun? It was Kuerten -- the No. 2 seed -- who was bounced from last year's U.S. Open in the first round a year ago at the hands of Wayne Arthurs.

Goran Ivanisevic, the reigning Wimbledon champion, begged to differ.

"I think it's better," he said. "I think it's more fair for everybody. [The] 16th seed can play against 17th player in the world. [It's] not easy."

Indeed, the point of the new system -- first instituted at Wimbledon -- is to separate the first 16 ranked players from the second 16 to avoid just that circumstance in the first round. Now, the 32 seeds in a 128-player tournament like the U.S. Open can't meet until at least the third round.

The result has been a fairly ho-hum few days to Open the tournament. No fewer than 29 of the men's 32 seeds advanced to the second round. No. 8 seed Sebastien Grosjean, who has suffered through a dreadful summer, was the only player eliminated worth noting. Among the women, 25 of 32 seeds advanced; Amanda Coetzer, No. 13, was the highest-ranked player to depart.

"I think that's the result of the seeds," Lindsay Davenport said. "I don't think you're going to see a [Barbara] Schett beating Venus [Williams] anymore. I think Schett was ranked [No. 18] at the French, just not being seeded.

"I wasn't for it when they suggested it. I thought it was very exciting having those first-round matchups. I thought the 16 was great."

Truthfully, this may be much ado about nothing. There have actually been more upsets in this year's first round than last year.

For what it's worth, 15 of last year's 16 men's seeds advanced to the second round -- with the second-seeded Kuerten being the exception. Likewise, 15 of the 16 seeded women advanced; No. 16 seed Julie Halard-Decugis was the only loser.

Greg Garber is a senior writer for ESPN.com.