The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Easy opener for Federer

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 26, 2005

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Sport - Tennis

Easy opener for Federer

NEW YORK: World No. 1 Roger Federer will begin the defence of his U.S. Open crown next week against Ivo Minar of the Czech Republic, tournament officials said on Wednesday.

The top-seeded Swiss will be bidding for his sixth Grand Slam title, having won his third consecutive Wimbledon crown last month.

Women's world number one and top seed Maria Sharapova of Russia faces a tough first-round match against Greek Eleni Daniilidou, while second seed Lindsay Davenport of the U.S. faces Li Na of China.

Federer, who has won nine titles this year, will be content with his draw although he could meet former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero, the Spanish number 20 seed, in the fourth round.

Russian sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko is drawn to be his quarterfinal opponent while Australian third seed Lleyton Hewitt, the man Federer beat to win the title at Flushing Meadows last year, is his likely semifinal opponent.

Former champions Andy Roddick and Andre Agassi, the top two-ranked Americans, are drawn in the opposite half to Federer and could meet in the last four.

Seventh seed Agassi, champion in 1994 and 1999, will take on Razvan Sabau of Romania in the opening round while Czech teenager Tomas Berdych, the number 32 seed, could present him with a tough test in the third round.

Should he reach the quarterfinals, Agassi is seeded to play Spaniard Rafael Nadal, the second seed, who beat him in the final of the Montreal Masters earlier this month.

In the women's event, Sharapova, the first Russian to top the WTA rankings, is seeded to face defending champion and fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia in the quarterfinals.

Intriguing fourth-round encounter

The highlight of the draw, though, is a potential fourth-round showdown between the Williams sisters, Wimbledon champion Venus and Australian Open champion Serena.

Belgian fourth seed Kim Clijsters, who won three hard-court titles in the run-up to the U.S. Open, faces a qualifier in round one and is seeded to meet the winner of the all-Williams clash in the quarterfinals.

McEnroe's take

Roger Federer and Kim Clijsters were the main beneficiaries of the draw, according to Patrick McEnroe.

Federer's path to the semifinals looks largely trouble-free while Clijsters opens against a qualifier and will be confident of breezing through her section of the draw.

"Any draw is a good draw for Federer," said McEnroe, who helped make the draw at the United Nations.

"But particularly here it's pretty good. I'm sure he'll be pretty happy with it.

"It's also worked out pretty well for the top two Americans, Andy Roddick and Andre Agassi. They have avoided each other and are in the other half to Federer, which is always a good thing."

McEnroe said Clijsters, who has yet to win a Grand Slam title, was the player to watch in the women's event.

"To me she's the favourite for the women's title," he said. "She's been the best player on hard-courts by far, not only this summer but also earlier in the year."

"You've got Venus, Serena and Clijsters all in that section, and you can make a case for all three of them," McEnroe said. "But for me Clijsters deserves to win a Grand Slam title."

Our Special Correspondent adds from New Delhi:

Sania Mirza has been drawn to meet Mashona Washington of the U.S. in the first round.

If she pulls off a first round win, Mirza who reached the third round of the Australian Open and the second round at Wimbledon, could meet the 21st ranked Dinara Safina of Russia. If she has good enough a run, she may go on to play the 14th seeded Alicia Molik of Australia and the world No.1 Maria Sharapova of Russia in the next two rounds.

Meanwhile, all of the three Indian players in the qualifying event moved into the second round at the Flushing Meadows.

Harsh Mankad beat Tim Smyczek of the U.S. 6-3, 6-2 to set up a second round clash with Julien Benneteau of France. Prakash Amritraj defeated Nicolas Mahut of France 7-6(4), 6-4 and will next meet Michal Mertinak of the Slovak Republic.

The Indian Fed Cup team member Shikha Uberoi regrouped after a bad start to record a 0-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory over Yulia Beygelzimer of Ukraine. She will challenge Ekaterina Makarova of Russia in the second qualifying round of the women's draw.

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