|
|
|
| August 29, 2005 | Monday | Rajab 23, 1426 |
Federer starts firm favourite to retain US Open crown
NEW YORK, Aug 28: They’ve changed the colour of the courts at the US Open for this year’s tournament which starts at Flushing Meadows on Monday, but if form prevails Roger Federer will once again be crowned men’s champion.
Not since the heyday of Pete Sampras has there been such a hot favourite going into the final Grand Slam leg of the season and the Swiss star only reaffirmed his credentials with a straight sets win over Andy Roddick in the final of the Cincinnati Masters Series event last week.
There had been a tiny question mark over Federer’s preparations for New York as prior to that event, he had not played since his majestic straight sets win over Roddick in the Wimbledon final in early July.
That self-imposed pause was to recharge the batteries and fully recover from a painful foot ailment that had dogged him since early in the year.
He started edgily at Cincinnati, but quickly got back into his stride and by the time he crushed Roddick in the final he once again looked a class above anyone else.
He goes into his sixth US Open campaign with an 18-match win streak, standing 64-3 on the year and has not lost since early June. He has also won the last 22 tournament finals he has played in, an all-time record and has been 81 weeks as world No 1.
Roddick, who won the 2003 US Open, his only Grand Slam win to date, not only lost again to Federer in Cincinnati, but his hopes this year were dented as he limped away with an injury to his right foot.
Last year’s beaten finalist Lleyton Hewitt has been beset by a succession of injuries that have sidelined him for much of the year, while Marat Safin has been struggling with a niggling knee injury since before the French Open in May.
The 2000 US Open winner has a doctor from Russia arriving to help with the injury as well as a fitness trainer to ensure he does everything correctly in his practise sessions.
There are doubts too over evergreen Andre Agassi who has made the US Open the focal point of his season.
The 35-year-old two-time winner in New York looked impressive in winning in Los Angeles and reaching the final of the Montreal Masters Series event earlier this month.
But he withdrew from Cincinnati last week in an apparent bid to pace himself and protect the injury he has been carrying to the sciatic nerve in his back.
That leaves the youngster who defeated Agassi in the Montreal final, Spain’s Rafael Nadal, as the fittest and potentially most dangerous rival for Federer.
Meanwhile, Kim Clijsters will see whether her sizzling summer form can produce her first Grand Slam title at the US Open, the Belgian leading a raft of women’s contenders hoping to steal the spotlight from top seeded Russian Maria Sharapova.
Clijsters, ranked fourth in the world and seeded fourth, arrives in New York having won three of four hardcourt tournaments she has entered since late July.
If she can keep it up, the former world number one, who revealed recently that she is considering ending her career at the end of 2007 because of recurring injury problems, could fill a gap on her resume that some consider glaring.
Sharapova, on the other hand, knows exactly what a Grand Slam title can do for a player. She was just 17 when she snatched the 2004 Wimbledon title from Serena Williams, a triumph that catapulted her toward a multi-million-dollar endorsement empire and, as of August 22, the world number one ranking which she held briefly for four days before Lindsay Davenport reclaimed the top spot by reaching the final in New Haven on Friday.
Whether Sharapova can solidify her status with a victory in the final Grand Slam of the season could depend largely on whether she is fully recovered from a right pectoral muscle strain that saw her withdraw before the quarterfinals at the WTA Tour event in Carson, California, on Aug 12 and skip the tournament in Toronto the following week.
Sharapova’s injury is just one of many to fell top players during the often brutal US hardcourt season that stretches between Wimbledon and the US Open.
Second seed Davenport, fifth-seeded defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, eighth-seeded Australian Open champion Serena Williams and her sister Venus Williams — the 10th seed and Wimbledon champion - have all been sidelined by injury or illness over the past two months.—AFP
|
|
|
|
