Monday, August 07, 2000
Elite tennis field usually produces elite champion
No player seeded lower than 7th has won here
By Michael Perry
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MASON — ATP Tour players sometimes think just as fans do. Asked who he favored in the Tennis Masters Series Cincinnati, which begins today, 1998 champ Patrick Rafter mentioned only two names:
Pete Sampras.
Andre Agassi.
Not exactly going out on a limb.
“They're probably two of the best players that ever played,” 15th seed Tim Henman said. “It's not rocket science.”
“I think you pick Pete as the favorite in any tournament he plays,” said Rafter, who withdrew Friday with an ailing right shoulder. “He is a guy that everyone would not like to play.”
He should know. Sampras is the No.2 seed and the defending champion, having defeated Rafter in last year's final. Sampras also won in 1997 and was runner-up to Rafter in '98.
Agassi is the No.1 seed and in the opposite half of the draw. If he and Sampras are to meet for the 30th time in their careers, it would be in the final. Both play first-round matches Tuesday.
Agassi's back could prevent another showdown with Sampras. He had to withdraw from the Queen's Club event in London before Wimbledon after slipping and falling. He suffered from muscle spasms after a car accident last month. Agassi missed Davis Cup. He withdrew from Los Angeles. He lost in the first round last week in Toronto.
Nobody seeded lower than seventh has ever won the tournament here. If that stays the same, only Sampras, Agassi, Magnus Norman, Gustavo Kuerten, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Alex Corretja and Thomas Enqvist would be contenders.
Norman, who today drops to No. 2 in the ATP Champions Race, is playing here for the first time; the last person to win in his first appearance was Boris Becker in 1985.
Kafelnikov has never won a Tennis Masters Series event in his career. Corretja has won 16 straight matches but is just 2-5 in Cincinnati.
All of which favors Kuerten, the two-time French Open champ who is 5-2 and a two-time quarterfinalist here, and Enqvist, who is 11-5 in Cincinnati and was a semifinalist in 1996 and '95.
“It's gets tougher and tougher every event,” said Kuerten, who takes over today as the leader in the Champions Race and plays Jerome Golmard in his opening match. “I expect to play well.”
Of course, there are other contenders. No.8 seed Marat Safin is coming off his first Tennis Master Series title Sunday in Toronto, and No.9 Lleyton Hewitt already has won four tournaments this year.
With the 64-player draw, and the tournament becoming mandatory for players ranked high enough to get in, it will also be tougher for the event to have an all-top 10 final, as Cincinnati has 14 of the last 15 years.
In Toronto this past weekend, the final four consisted of Safin (No.8 in the ATP Champions Race), Wayne Ferreira (20), Jiri Novak (62) and qualifier Harel Levy (133). Safin beat Sampras in the quarterfinals.
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