Saturday, August 05, 2000
Ailing Rafter pulls out of Cincinnati tourney
Top-seeded Agassi faces challenging path
By Michael Perry
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MASON — Patrick Rafter, who had rotator cuff surgery in October, withdrew Friday from this year's Tennis Masters Series Cincinnati tournament because of an ailing right shoulder.
He would have been the 14th seed in the main draw, which begins Monday at the ATP Tennis Center. He has been in the finals here the past two years and is one of the more popular players on the Tour.
“I'm disappointed, but I've been in this a long time,” tournament chairman Paul Flory said. “If you only came to see Rafter, I think there's something missing in your wanting to watch tennis. The draw's too strong. I don't think one player's going to make or break it.”
Rafter lost 3-6, 7-6 (1), 6-2 Friday loss to Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic in a quarterfinal match at the Tennis Masters Series-Canada.
A look at the draw:
• No.1 seed: Andre Agassi, whose back is hurting, does not have an easy draw. His first match is against Wayne Ferreira, who defeated Yevgeny Kafelnikov on Friday and plays today in the semifinals in Toronto.
• Defending champ: Pete Sampras, the No.2 seed, has one of the better draws. He starts with Mariano Zabaleta of Argentina, then would face the winner of Jeff Tarango and a qualifier. The only obstacle to the quarterfinals should be 15th seed Tim Henman.
• Best path to quarterfinals: Third-seeded Magnus Norman, playing in Cincinnati for the first time, opens with Juan Ignacio Chela, then should meet the Mardy Fish-Slava Dosedel winner. The only seed in his way: No.13 Franco Squillari.
• Best first-round matches: Kafelnikov-Richard Krajicek; Todd Martin-Nicolas Kiefer; Sjeng Schalken-Michael Chang; Dominik Hrbaty-Chris Woodruff.
• Potential second-round pairings: Mark Philippoussis-Marcelo Rios; Alex Corretja-Carlos Moya.
• Injured no-shows: Rafter; Cedric Pioline, the only top-10 player missing from the field (hand); Tommy Haas (back); Magnus Larsson (knee); Jan-Michael Gambill (ankle); Greg Rusedski (foot); Andrei Medvedev (ankle); Nicolas Escude (groin).
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