Todd Martin and Yevgeny Kafelnikov are the only seeded players left in the tournament, and one of those will be eliminated after the completion of their quarter-final match. The other players remaining in the tournament are somewhat unexpected. Tommy Haas and Vincent Spadea will square off in a quarter final match, whilst Nicholas Lapentti has already fought his way into the semi-finals.
The biggest shock of the tournament was elimination of Andre Agassi by Spadea in the 4th round. Agassi was widely regarded as the favourite for the tournament after Mark Philippoussis was beaten by Enqvist. He will be turning 29 years old within the next few months, and is rapidly running out of time to add to his grand slam tally of 3.
Jim Courier has surely reached the end of the road after his gruelling 3rd round loss to Yevgeny Kafelnikov. The American fought hard, but was outhit by his younger opponent. In the end he was forced to retire with injury. Also 29 years of age, Courier surely will be forced to give way after a series of disappointing losses.
Michael Chang may however still be in contention for the grand slams. He suffered a dramatic loss in the rankings last year, but his form has since improved. This was amply demonstrated in his 5 set loss to Australian powerhouse Philippoussis. To the surprise of many, Chang was able to more than match it with the Australian from the back of the court. Even though he lost, the match bodes well for Chang, a former world number 2 and French Open champion.
Pat Rafter went down once more in the 3rd round, although he fought gallantly against Enqvist. Rafter will always be up against it playing a serve and volley game on this slow surface. There is one serve and vollier left in the tournament in Todd Martin, but like Sampras he could just as easily be considered a baseliner; such is the quality of his ground-strokes.
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