When Belgian Kim Clijsters bullied her way into the No. 2 spot in the world rankings, driving a wedge between Serena and Venus Williams, everyone thought she'd killed an all-Williams final at the French. Finally, at Nos. 1 and 3, the Williams sisters would be forced to the same side of the draw. One would have to get through the other to end up in a final, and the days of the all-Williams championship matches would be over. Well, that just ain't so.

Check out the seedings for the French Open. They're the same as the current world rankings, with Serena at No. 1, Clijsters at No. 2, Venus at No. 3, and Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne at No. 4. Logic would say that Serena and Venus would be on the same side of the draw, and that Kim and Justine would be on the other.

Well, who ever said logic had anything to do with it?

The top two seeds are automatically separated, with No. 1 placed in the top half of the draw and No. 2 in the bottom. After that, Nos. 3 and 4 are drawn out of a hat -- first one out goes in the top half, second one out goes in the bottom half. The process is repeated for seeds 5-8, then 9-12, then 13-16, then 17-24, then 25-32 and so on through 128 in the case of the French.

Seedings are designed to give the top player an advantage, to keep them from playing other top players until the late rounds of the tournament so the most exiting matches are saved for last. The idea of a random drawing is used so that the match-ups are not the same for every event. But, in this case, the system backfired, and the French Open is set to allow another Serena against Venus final (barring, of course, a defeat in the earlier rounds).

Is there a better way to do this? Who knows. Sticking simply to the draw would be monotonous after a while, unless there was a lot of player movement in the top 25. (Though, shouldn't a player benefit from a hard-won rank?) Seeding like the NCAA tournament, where No. 1 plays No. 16, No. 2 plays No. 15, No. 3 plays No. 14 and so on would end up with the same final result if all the top-seed prevailed -- No. 1 and No. 4 would play in one semifinal, No. 2 and No. 3 in the other.

The NHL re-seeds after each round, with the highest remaining seed moving on to play the lowest remaining seed, giving greater chance for upsets. But, in tennis, where matches are played every day and play in one bracket can be spread out over two days, this would be impossible.

As long as Venus and Serena remain in the top four, they won't end up on the same side of the draw unless the stars are properly aligned when their names are drawn. Heck, even if one of them drops as low as five, it would still be a gamble.

So, if you're sick of seeing Venus and Serena slug it out in Grand Slam final after Grand Slam final, pull out your rabbit's foot and your garlic cloves and get to work praying for upsets. Or, for early retirement.

Lindsay Berra writes for ESPN The Magazine.