Friday, August 23, 2002
A look ahead at the U.S. Open
By HOWARD FENDRICH
AP Tennis Writer
NEW YORK — A glance at the U.S. Open draw can spur excitement about potential matchups down the road: a Pete Sampras vs. Andy Roddick quarterfinal; an Andre Agassi vs. Lleyton Hewitt semifinal; and a Serena Williams vs. Venus Williams final.
There also can be intrigue in early action, as U.S. Fed Cup captain Billie Jean King noted Wednesday when glancing at the possible second-round matchup between Anna Kournikova and Alexandra Stevenson: “We're going to see which one struts more.”
And there always are unseeded players capable of knocking off a star.
One example this year is Greg Rusedski, the 1997 U.S. Open runner-up, who could face top-ranked and defending champion Hewitt in the second round.
Rusedski is ranked 33rd — highest of the unseeded men — and used his serve (he holds the ATP Tour record of 149 mph) to beat each of the top three players in the rankings on hard courts this month. He upset Hewitt en route to the title at Indianapolis last week.
“In the past 12 days, I've won a tournament and beaten the top three players in the world,” Rusedski said. “So I have to think that not too many people will want to see my name in the first round of the U.S. Open.”
Two other unseeded players with big serves who could pull a surprise or two are 1996 Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek and Wayne Arthurs.
Krajicek is working his way into shape after a long layoff because of elbow surgery. A quarterfinalist in three of the past four Opens he's played, Krajicek could upset No. 14 Jiri Novak in the first round and wind up facing Hewitt in the fourth.
Arthurs was drawn to play No. 7 Juan Carlos Ferrero, the French Open runner-up, in the first round. Arthurs' list of upsets in Grand Slam play is impressive: Roddick in the first round at the French Open, Novak in the second round at Wimbledon and Gustavo Kuerten in the first round of the 2000 U.S. Open, when Kuerten was seeded No. 2.
Sampras has won the Open four times and was a finalist the past two years. But thanks to a title drought that extends to July 2000, he is seeded just 17th and his possible opponents include 15th-seeded Guillermo Canas in the third round, No. 3 Tommy Haas in the fourth, followed by either No. 5 Tim Henman or No. 11 Roddick. And that's just to get to the semifinals.
The year's last major tournament starts Monday, and the Williams sisters will be expected to meet in a Grand Slam final for the third straight time. Serena beat Venus at the French Open and Wimbledon.
The top-seeded Serena pulled out of a tournament last week because of left knee tendinitis and probably will benefit from avoiding top players until later rounds. Her first match is against wild-card entry Corina Morariu, an accomplished doubles player who recently returned to action after fighting leukemia since May 2001.
The earliest Serena could face a top-20 player is in the fourth round, against 15th-seeded Anastasia Myskina.
The women's round-of-eight matchups could be: Serena Williams vs. No. 8 Justine Henin; two-time defending champion Venus Williams vs. Monica Seles; No. 3 Capriati vs. No. 7 Kim Clijsters, and No. 4 Lindsay Davenport vs. No. 5 Jelena Dokic.
The potential men's quarterfinals: Hewitt vs. French Open champion Albert Costa; 2000 U.S. Open winner Marat Safin vs. Ferrero; Haas vs. Henman, and No. 4 Yevgeny Kafelnikov vs. Agassi.
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A look ahead at the U.S. Open
