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Friday, August 25
Pierce among top women missing
Associated Press
Americans Lindsay Davenport and Andre Agassi will be seeking
their second consecutive gold medals when the world's top tennis
players meet at the Sydney Olympics.
Missing from the select fields in play Sept. 19-28 will be Pete
Sampras and three of the top eight women -- No. 1 Martina Hingis,
No. 4 Mary Pierce and No. 8 Nathalie Tauziat.
"To me, the Olympic Games represent the core of what sports are
all about - human challenge and triumph," Agassi said. "The
reward is pride, not anything material or short-lived."
The International Tennis Federation on Thursday released the
direct acceptances into the Games, which were determined in large
part by computer rankings. Thirty-nine countries are represented -
from Argentina and Armenia to Yugoslavia and Zimbabwe.
Players selected by the ITF will be announced on Aug. 10, while
those invited to the Games by a tripartite commission composed of
the International Olympic Committee, the national Olympic
committees and the ITF will be announced Aug. 15.
Besides Agassi, the American men's team is composed of Michael
Chang, Todd Martin and Jeff Tarango in singles, and Alex O'Brien
and Jared Palmer in doubles. The women's team is composed of
Davenport, Monica Seles and sisters Venus and Serena Williams.
"This is the strongest field ever to compete in the Olympic
tennis event," said ITF president Francesco Ricci Bitti said.
The men's field includes 17 of the top 20 players in the current
ATP Tour Entry System. Besides Sampras, Cedric Pioline of France
and Mariano Puerta of Argentina turned down the Olympics.
Twelve of the current top-20 players have entered the women's
competition. However, the rules for the Olympic women's singles
permits only three representatives from any one country. The United
States has six women in the top 20, while France has five.
Among those who will compete in Sydney are Sweden's Magnus
Norman, Brazil's Gustavo Kuerten, Russia's Yevgeny Kafelnikov,
Spain's Alex Corretja, Germany's Nicolas Kiefer, Morocco's Younes
El Aynaoui and Britain's Tim Henman in men's singles.
The women's singles field will include Natasha Zvereva of
Belarus, Jing Qian Yi of China, Sonja Jeyaseelan of Canada,
Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand, Cara Black of Zimbabwe and Anne
Kremer of Luxembourg.
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