Agassi and Clijsters get top billings at US Open

Two-time US Open champion Andre Agassi of the United States and women’s world No.1 Kim Clijsters of Belgium will be the top seeds at th...

Two-time US Open champion Andre Agassi of the United States and women’s world No.1 Kim Clijsters of Belgium will be the top seeds at the US Open Championships, the US Tennis Association said here.

Agassi, the reigning Australian Open champion and current world No. 1, will be followed by No. 2 Roger Federer of Switzerland, the current Wimbledon champion, No. 3 Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain, the reigning French Open champion, and No. 4 Andy Roddick of the United States, who won consecutive Tennis Masters Series events in Montreal and Cincinnati during the past two weeks.

Clijsters, a two-time Grand Slam runner-up, will be followed by countrywoman Justine Henin-Hardenne, the reigning French Open champion, and two Americans: No. 3 Lindsay Davenport, the 1998 US Open champion and No. 4 Venus Williams, a two-time US Open champion in 2000 and 2001 and last year’s runner-up.

Bhupathi-Paes pull
out of ATP event

Story continues below this ad

New Delhi: The prospect of Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes joining hands on tennis courts came to nought when the duo was forced to withdraw from the $355,000 ATP Tour event in Long Island, New York, this week after the latter was laid down by flu.
Paes is recuperating in Orlando at present, according to information received here.
Bhupathi and Paes, three-time Grand Slam champions and former world No.1 pair before they broke off last year, were the top seeds at Long Island.
The two were coming together for the week since their respective partners, Max Mirnyi of Belarus and David Rikl of the Czech Republic, opted out of the event which is the last before the US Open Grand Slam starting Monday. ENS

Clijsters and Henin-Hardenne are the first women ever from the same country other than the United States to be seeded one and two at the US Open.

For 2003, the US Open continued the practice of following the ATP entry system and WTA Tour rankings to determine the men’s and women’s singles seeds. This is the third consecutive year that the US Open has seeded 32 players in both singles events.

Agassi, 33, the oldest player to be ranked No. 1 in the ATP entry system, will enter the US Open, which starts Monday, August 25, as the No. 1 seed for the third time in his career (1995, 2000).

Story continues below this ad

Agassi won his eighth career Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open in January.

He owns a 62-15 record at the US Open and has reached the singles final here five times since 1990.

He was runner-up last year to Pete Sampras. Agassi won the first of his two US Open titles as an unseeded player in 1994.

Clijsters, 20, took over the top spot on the WTA Tour rankings on August 11 after winning her tour-leading sixth singles title of the year.

Story continues below this ad

Clijsters reached her second French Open final in June and was a semi-finalist at both the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year.

She owns as a 10-4 record in four appearances at the US Open with her best showing in 2001 when she reached the quarter-finals.

Clijsters ended 2002 ranked No. 4 after defeating Serena Williams in the final of the WTA Tour season-ending championships.

The draw for the 2003 US Open will take place tomorrow.

Investigators, including a bomb squad, combed the site. (Representational)

‘Targeted attack’: Man rams car into FBI’s Pittsburgh building gate

World24 min ago

In a targeted attack, a man rammed his car into the FBI's Pittsburgh field office on Wednesday and then threw an American flag over the damaged gate before fleeing the scene. No FBI personnel were injured, and the suspect had previously visited the office with a nonsensical complaint. The FBI is asking for the public's help in identifying the suspect.

View all shorts

Live Blog