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| | Thursday, August 24 Top half of men's draw is loaded | |||||
| Associated Press NEW YORK -- If Venus and Serena Williams face each other in the U.S. Open this year, it will be for the women's singles title. Defending champion Serena Williams is in the bottom half of the draw, conducted Wednesday, and will face Tina Pisnik of Slovenia in the opening round. Older sister Venus, the Wimbledon champion and higher seeded of the two at No. 3, will play Anne-Gaelle Sidot of France in her first-round match. Top-seeded Martina Hingis will open against Alina Jidkova of Russia, while Lindsay Davenport, seeded No. 2, will begin against Gala Leon Garcia of Spain. While the women's draw is pretty even between the top and the bottom halves, the top half of the men's singles is loaded. Defending champion Andre Agassi, seeded No. 1, is joined in the top half by fourth-seeded Pete Sampras, seeking a men's record 14th Grand Slam tournament singles title; No. 5 Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia; No. 7 Thomas Enqvist of Sweden; No. 9 Lleyton Hewitt of Australia; No. 11 Tim Henman of Britain; and unseeded Richard Krajicek of the Netherlands, a former Wimbledon champion considered one of the most dangerous floaters in the draw. Agassi will open against wild-card Alex Kim, the NCAA champion from Stanford, while Sampras will begin against Martin Damm of the Czech Republic. French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten, seeded second, will take on a qualifier in the first round. Joining Kuerten in the bottom half of the raw are third-seeded Magnus Norman of Sweden, No. 6 Marat Safin of Russia, No. 8 Alex Corretja of Spain, No. 10 Cedric Pioline of France, No. 12 Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain, No. 14 Nicolas Kiefer of Germany and No. 15 Mark Philippoussis of Australia. Todd Martin, last year's runnerup who has been injured most of this year, causing his ranking to plummet, will face fellow American Vince Spadea in the first round. | ALSO SEE Open draw offers plenty of first-round intrigue U.S. Open men's draw U.S. Open women's draw U.S. Open seeds: Agassi, Hingis are named No. 1s U.S. Open men's and women's seeds | |||||