Injury forces Becker out
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Boris Becker has withdrawn from the US Open, which begins on Monday. Becker, who won the title in 1989, is still suffering from the wrist injury he sustained at Wimbledon.
Mary Pierce of France and America's Meredith McGrath have also pulled out of the year's final Grand Slam tournament. Pierce is troubled by an injury to her right shoulder, while McGrath, who reached the Wimbledon semi-finals this year, has a knee injury.
The French Open champion, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, was included in yesterday's draw, but the Russian considers himself questionable after pulling out of the Hamlet Cup on Tuesday with a rib injury.
In deciding yesterday's draw, the US Tennis Association broke with tradition and took a page out of the Wimbledon handbook by deviating from the ATP Tour rankings in formulating the men's seedings.
The association has for many years seeded players strictly according to world rankings, but the USTA president, Les Snyder, decided to do things differently this year, and withheld the list of men's seeds until just prior to yesterday's draw ceremony.
Michael Chang, currently ranked a career-high third in the world, has been ranked as the second seed, behind the world No 1, Pete Sampras. That dropped the second-ranked Thomas Muster of Austria, a clay-court specialist, to the third spot for the event.
Snyder said tournament officials wanted the seedings to be a more accurate predictor of the event, rather than a reflection of the rankings computer. He said a player's showing in the other Grand Slams, recent performance and record on hard courts were all taken into consideration, and insisted the popularity of a player was not a factor.
Andre Agassi, following victories in the Olympics and at Cincinnati, is seeded sixth, while the seventh-ranked Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek was seeded fifth. Despite a history of disappointing showings at Flushing Meadow, Goran Ivanisevic was seeded fourth.
Spain's Felix Mantilla, ranked No 16, who would have been awarded the final seeding under the usual US Open format, was left unseeded, allowing Cedric Pioline of France to join the seeded ranks in the men's draw.
Britain's No 1, Tim Henman, has been drawn against Andrei Olhovskiy of Russia in the first round at Flushing Meadow, while his compatriot, Greg Rusedski, plays Jared Palmer of the United States.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments