Expect tennis’s big guns to be booming when the us open begins on Monday, despite a rash of injuries that saw many of them sidelined for significant stretches since Wimbledon. Roger Federer has played just once since claiming his Wimbledon triumph, basking in the victory and resting a painful foot ailment. The strategy appeared to pay off when he won his first Cincinnati Masters title, and Australian Lleyton Hewitt, for one, didn’t think a lack of matches would prove any hindrance to Federer in the gritty confines of the National Tennis Center at Flushing Meadows. "Federer is in a class of his own," Hewitt said. "I don’t think limited matches are going to affect him too much whatsoever. Hewitt himself, who fell to Federer in last year’s US Open final, has been beset by a succession of injuries and illness. American Andy Roddick, who claimed his lone Grand Slam title at the 2003 US Open, not only lost again to Federer in Cincinnati but injured his right foot in the process. Australian Open champion Marat Safin has been struggling with niggling knee injury since before the French Open. Things have been just as bad on the WTA tour. Open top seed Maria Sharapova was forced out of one August tournament early and skipped another to rest a strained right chest muscle. Lindsay Davenport, seeded second for the Open was sidelined seven weeks with a back injury, and Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova’s preparation for the defence of the title she won here last year has also been disrupted by back pain. Australian Open champion Serena Williams has been battling a sore knee in recent weeks, while elder sister Venus fell prey to fatigue and flu weeks after her triumph at Wimbledon. "I think the last three or four years it has been an epidemic," tennis icon Martina Navratilova said.
