| Men Injured, Women Formful | |
Dateline: 09/04/99
Nearing the end of its first week, the US Open has seen three of its top male contenders withdraw due to injury. The top seed, Pete Sampras, withdrew due to a back injury, as did the eighth seed, Carlos Moya. The two-time defending champion, Patrick Rafter, retired from his first-round match with a shoulder injury. Also withdrawing, before the tournament started, was Mark Philippoussis, who is still suffering from the knee injury that began at Wimbledon while he was playing arguably his best-ever tennis.
This leaves Andre Agassi the favorite. The French Open champ and Wimbledon finalist this year, Agassi is the second seed at the US Open, and has shown no signs of losing his exceptional sharpness. The biggest threat in his half of the draw is third seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who is playing much better now, ironically, than when he was ranked number one earlier this year and losing in the first round of six consecutive tournaments. The strongest contender in the other half of the draw is the powerful ninth seed, Greg Rusedski, who benefits from the fast court conditions this year. An Agassi - Rusedski final would feature one of the game's biggest servers (Rusedski) against the game's best returner.
The women's side has yet to lose any of the top contenders. Top seed Martina Hingis is playing and feeling well, as are second seed Lindsay Davenport, third seed Venus Williams, and seventh seed Serena Williams. These are my top four picks. Nick Bollettieri's picks at the start of the tournament included Martina, Lindsay, and Venus, but also Jana Novotna and Monica Seles. Novotna, still not fully recovered from her ankle injury at the French Open, lost to Anke Huber in the second round earlier this week. Seles is still in, but while feeling much happier than she has in a long while, she is not at the top of her game.
As has been the case for at least the last year, the women's draw is the more exciting, both for its depth and its interesting cast of characters. Both Hingis and the Williams sisters' father, Richard, rarely fail to offer at least one provocative comment per tournament, and this time they tangled with each other in a small controversy that began when Williams predicted that his two daughters would play in the final. There's a good chance he'll turn out to be right, especially on this year's fast surface, which favors power players.
