Injuries Hit the US Open as Agassi Heads the Field

This year's US Open has so far been more notable for who hasn't been in it than who has. The first round brought the shock news of Pete Sampras' withdrawal from the event before a ball had been hit. This is a cruel blow to the American, who had an excellent chance of winning a 13th grand slam to become the sole world record holder. Pat Rafter's attempt to win a history-making three-peat at the US Open ended in frustration, with the Australian retiring after being pushed to a 5th set by Cedric Pioline in the opening round. Finally, last year's finalist Mark Philipossis also withdrew without hitting a ball, still suffering from the injury which forced him out of various touranments in recent weeks. The main story for the US Open now is who will win out of hot favourite Andre Agassi, and this year's Australian Open champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov. Both have been ranked number 1 this year, and both will be keen to add to their tally of having won 1 grand slam in 1999.

Andre Agassi has rightfully been given favouritism for this event after the withdrawal of several of the game's other superstars during this tournament. Agassi won the French Open earlier in the year, and followed that up with a finals appearance at Wimbledon. Since before the French Open, he has only lost 4 matches, 3 of which were to Sampras and the other was to Kafelnikov earlier in the summer.

Kafelnikov meanwhile has had an extremely up and down year this year. He hit the heights when he claimed his first Australian Open title at the year's beginning, the 2nd grand slam of his career. Not long after he reached the final of the London indoors event, before falling into a form slump. He lost in the early rounds of touranments several times in a row. Ironically, he achieved the world number 1 ranking during this bad patch. Quite possibly the pressures associated with his high ranking; and his status as the Australian Open champion; were telling on Kafelnikov.

However, the Russian appears to have put these hang-ups behind him, and this American summer has been his best performance here for some time. Kafelnikov reached the final of the Super-Nine touranment in Montreal, as well as the final of the Washington event. At the time of writing he has made the quarter-finals of the US Open, his best performance to date at the event. The Russian himself has boldly predicted that the winner of a possible semi-final between himself and Agassi will produce this year's 1999 US Open winner. Given the form that Kafelnikov and Agassi have displayed at this tournament, with each player only dropping 1 set; it is hard to argue with the Russian's prediction.

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