2003 US OPEN
DAY 12 MEN’S NOTES
5 September 2003
Quarterfinals

Show court matches

ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM: No. 1 Andre Agassi (USA) v No. 5 Guillermo Coria (ARG)
No. 4 Andy Roddick (USA) v No. 12 Sjeng Schalken (NED)

LOUIS ARMSTRONG No. 3 Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP) v No. 6 Lleyton Hewitt (AUS)
STADIUM: No. 13 David Nalbandian (ARG) v No. 22 Younes El Aynaoui (MAR)





On court today…

• Two-time champion Andre Agassi and Guillermo Coria meet for the fourth time overall and the third time in Grand Slam competition. Agassi won their round of 16 match-up at the 2003 Australian Open by retirement; Coria avenged his loss in the quarterfinals at 2003 Roland Garros. Agassi leads the overall head-to-head 2-1.

• For the third year running, Andy Roddick bids to reach the semifinals of his home Grand Slam tournament. Standing in his way this time is 2002 semifinalist Sjeng Schalken.

• A clash between two Grand Slam champions when No. 3 seed Juan Carlos Ferrero meets No. 6 seed Lleyton Hewitt. Fittingly, 2003 Roland Garros champion Ferrero has won both their clay court matches, while Lleyton Hewitt, 2001 US Open winner (and 2002 Wimbledon winner) has won their three previous meetings on hard court.

• For the fourth time in his career, Younes El Aynaoui attempts to become the first Moroccan to reach a Grand Slam tournament semifinal in the Open Era. He takes on David Nalbandian, one of a record two Argentines, alongside Coria, through to the last eight here.


ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM

NO. 1 ANDRE AGASSI (USA) v NO. 5 GUILLERMO CORIA (ARG)

Head-to-head: Agassi leads 2-1
2002 TMS Cincinnati Hard (O) R32 Agassi 60 62
2003 Australian Open Hard (O) R16 Agassi 61 31 ret.
2003 Roland Garros Clay (O) QF Coria 46 63 62 64

This is the fourth meeting for Agassi and Coria, and their third meeting in a Grand Slam tournament. Coria claimed his first victory against Agassi at Roland Garros this year, having been forced to retire from their round of 16 meeting at the Australian Open earlier in the season due to a callus and blisters on his right foot.

Agassi v Coria

33 Age 21
1 Entry Ranking 5
58 Titles 5
200-44 Career Grand Slam Record 18-9
Champion
1995/00/01/03
Aus Open
1999 Roland Garros
1992 Wimbledon
1994/99 US Open Best Grand Slam Result Semifinalist
2003 Roland Garros
66-15 US Open Record 6-1
781-238 Career Record 105-48
507-130 Career Record – Hard 32-18
43-7 2003 Record 54-13
28-3 2003 Record – Hard 16-7
23-19 Career Five-Set Record 1-1
5 Comebacks from 0-2 down 0
168-138 Career Tie-break Record 24-20
12-5 2003 Tie-break Record 7-6
7:34 Total Time on Court 8:16

• Agassi defeated Alex Corretja 61 62 62 in the first round and Andreas Vinciguerra 76 61 64 in the second round. In the third round, Agassi defeated Yevgeny Kafelnikov for the sixth successive time, winning 63 76 64. He defeated Taylor Dent 67 64 75 ret. in the round of 16 when Dent retired with a lower right hamstring strain.

• Agassi’s defeat of Dent in the round of 16 was his 200th Grand Slam match victory. Agassi remains in fourth place for the most Grand Slam match wins in the Open Era, but if he were to win three more matches and capture the 2003 US Open title, Agassi would equal Pete Sampras in third place.

Top Open Era Grand Slam performances
Overall US Open
Jimmy Connors 233-49 98-17
Ivan Lendl 222-49 73-13
Pete Sampras 203-38 71-9
Andre Agassi 200-44 66-15

• Agassi’s round of 16 match was the only one to be completed by end of play on Tuesday night, the remaining round of 16 matches being completed on Wednesday and Thursday after nearly three full days of rain delays.

• Agassi’s third round encounter with Kafelnikov was played over two days, the only one of Saturday’s rain-interrupted matches to do so. It was suspended on Saturday, after two previous rain breaks, with Agassi leading by a set and trailing 0-1 0-15 in the second set. The match was completed on Sunday.

• Until his defeat by today’s opponent Coria in the quarters at this year’s Roland Garros, Agassi was on a six-match winning streak against Argentines in all competition, and had a perfect 12-0 record against the nation in Grand Slam tournaments. Agassi has faced an Argentine at the US Open just once before today, defeating Franco Davin 75 64 60 in the third round here in 1990.

• Agassi is playing his 18th consecutive US Open, having made his debut as a wild card in 1986. This is the most appearances by any man in the draw. Including the 2003 US Open, Agassi has played a total of 53 Grand Slam tournaments in his career, placing him joint-6th on the all-time Open Era list of Grand Slams played (Wayne Ferreira, who lost in the second round here, has also played 53 majors.) [For more details see page 9 of the Preview.]

• Agassi has reached the quarterfinals for the 11th time at the US Open. He has twice lost at this stage of the event, in 1992 and 2001, falling to Jim Courier 63 67 61 64 in 1992 and to Pete Sampras 67 76 76 76 in 2001.

• Agassi reached his fifth US Open final last year, losing to Pete Sampras 63 64 57 64 in the 34th and last meeting between the great rivals. Agassi won the US Open title in 1994 (defeating Michael Stich 61 76 75 in the final) and again in 1999 (defeating Todd Martin 64 67 67 63 62). The only other former US Open champion in the draw is 2001 winner Lleyton Hewitt.

• Following the retirements of Pete Sampras and Michael Chang this week, Agassi is now the only active American male Grand Slam champion.

• Agassi owns eight Grand Slam titles in total. A third US title would give him sole possession of sixth place for the most all-time Grand Slam titles.
Top Grand Slam titleholders
1. Pete Sampras 14
2. Roy Emerson 12
3. Bjorn Borg 11
Rod Laver 11
5. Bill Tilden 10
6. Fred Perry 8
Ken Rosewall 8
Jimmy Connors 8
Ivan Lendl 8
Andre Agassi 8

• Agassi has now reached the quarterfinals at three of the four Grand Slam tournaments in 2003. He lost his quarterfinal match at Roland Garros, to Guillermo Coria 46 63 62 64. At the Australian Open, he defeated Sebastien Grosjean 63 62 62 in the quarterfinals, and then went on to defeat Wayne Ferreira 62 62 63 in the semifinals and Rainer Schuettler 62 62 61 in the final to claim his eighth Grand Slam title.

• Perhaps surprisingly for the two majors that are played on the most similar surfaces, it is 15 years since the Australian Open champion went on to win the US Open title in the same year. The last man to achieve the Aussie-US double was Mats Wilander in 1988 (he also won Roland Garros that year). Reaching the final in both Melbourne and New York in one year is more common: since 1988 there have been five occurrences of this, although it has not happened since 1996.

• Agassi has won a total of four titles in 2003, three of these on hard court. In addition to the Australian Open, he won at San Jose (defeating Davide Sanguinetti 63 61 in the final) and TMS Miami (defeating Carlos Moya 63 63 in the final). He also captured the title on clay at Houston (defeating Andy Roddick 36 63 64 in the final).

• Agassi is the tour’s all-time leader in hard court tournament titles, having won 44 tournaments (of 58 total) on hard courts. The active players nearest to Agassi for hard court titles are Thomas Enqvist and Lleyton Hewitt, who have both won 13 tournaments on the surface.


All-time Open Era hard court title leaders
Player Hard Court Titles Last Hard Court Title (active players only)
Andre Agassi 44 2003 TMS Miami
Pete Sampras 36
Ivan Lendl 27
Jimmy Connors 23
Michael Chang 21
John McEnroe 21
Stefan Edberg 20
Boris Becker 16
Jim Courier 16
Brad Gilbert 14
Thomas Enqvist 13 2002 Marseille*
Lleyton Hewitt 13 2003 TMS Indian Wells
Wayne Ferreira 11 2003 Los Angeles
* played on indoor hard court

• This is the first time Agassi has been seeded No. 1 at a Grand Slam event since the 2000 US Open. Then, he was upset in the second round by Arnaud Clement 63 62 64.

• The No. 1 seed has won the US Open title only eight times in 35 meetings. The last top seed to win the title here was Pete Sampras in 1996, when he successfully defended his US Open title. The No. 1 seed has not been successful at a Grand Slam event since Lleyton Hewitt at 2002 Wimbledon. [For more details see page 9 of the Preview.]

• Agassi’s last tournament before the US Open at TMS Montreal, where he lost in the quarterfinals to Rainer Schuettler 26 62 63. He only played one other event on the summer hard court circuit, reaching the semifinals at Washington the week previously before losing to Fernando Gonzalez 36 64 76.

• This is only Agassi’s 12th tournament this year. Although he has a 43-7 record to date, Agassi had more success in the first half of the season, when he collected four titles as described above.

• Coria defeated Jonas Bjorkman 62 63 46 62 to advance to the quarterfinals. The match spanned three days, being suspended with Coria leading 62 20 ret. on Tuesday then being played to completion on Thursday.

• In advance of his match against Bjorkman, he had received treatment for left hamstring tightness, aggravated during his third round defeat of Gregory Carraz.

• Before defeating Bjorkman, Coria had wins over countryman Mariano Puerta in the first round 64 63 61, Bohdan Ulihrach 62 61 64 in the second round and Gregory Carraz 75 61 75 in the third round.

• Coria has lost just one set en route to the quarterfinals, joining No. 1 seed Andre Agassi and No. 4 seed Andy Roddick as the only men to advance to the last eight for the loss of a single set.

• By reaching the quarterfinals, Coria has posted his best US Open result to date. He debuted here last year, progressing to the third round before falling to Arnaud Clement 26 62 75 76.

• With No. 13 David Nalbandian also through to the last eight, this is the first time in Open Era history that two Argentines have reached the quarterfinals at the US Open. Guillermo Vilas and Jose-Luis Clerc both reached the last 16 here in 1979 and 1981, but each time lost their matches.

• Coria and Nalbandian are the third and fourth Argentines in the Open Era to reach the US Open quarterfinals, after Guillermo Vilas, whom Coria is named after, and Mariano Zabaleta.

• To date, only one Argentine has won his US Open quarterfinal in the Open Era. That was the legendary Vilas, who reached the semis three times here and won the title in 1977. The US Open was played on clay 1975-77.


Argentines in US Open quarterfinals (Open Era)
Year Player Quarterfinal result Eventual finish
1975 Guillermo Vilas Defeated Jaime Fillol 64 60 61 SFs
1976 Guillermo Vilas Defeated Eddie Dibbs 61 26 76 76 SFs
1977 Guillermo Vilas Defeated Ray Moore 61 61 60 Champion
1982 Guillermo Vilas Defeated Tom Gullikson 62 61 63 SFs
2001 Mariano Zabaleta Lost to Marat Safin 64 64 62 --
2003
2003 Guillermo Coria
David Nalbandian v Andre Agassi ???
v Younes El Aynaoui ??? ???
???

• Coria has a career 7-4 record against Americans. Agassi is the only American he has played at a Grand Slam event, with a 1-1 record as detailed in the head-to-head above. Coria is currently on a three-match winning streak against Americans, through his Roland Garros semifinal defeat of Agassi.

Coria’s three in a row against Americans
Event Player Score
2003 TMS Monte Carlo Defeated James Blake 60 67 63 in 2nd rd
2003 TMS Hamburg Defeated Vince Spadea 62 62 in 1st rd
2003 Roland Garros Defeated Andre Agassi 46 63 62 64 in QFs

• Coria had a 15-match winning streak between Wimbledon and the US Open that brought him consecutive titles at Stuttgart, Kitzbuhel and Sopot. This is the second-longest winning streak of the year, shared with Roger Federer, who also had 15 consecutive victories earlier in the season. Andy Roddick leads the tour with a 16-match winning streak, active through his round of 16 victory over Xavier Malisse here.

• By winning Stuttgart, Kitzbuhel and Sopot, Coria became the first player in seven years to win three ATP titles in three consecutive weeks, matching a feat last achieved by Thomas Muster in 1996.

• Coria played two hard court events in the run-up to the US Open. He lost in the first round at TMS Montreal to Feliciano Lopez 63 ret., suffering from a right hamstring injury, but reached the quarterfinals at TMS Cincinnati the week after, losing to Max Mirnyi 62 75.

• 2003 has been Coria’s most successful year to date. So far, he has claimed four tour titles (at TMS Hamburg, Stuttgart, Kitzbuhel and Sopot), reached two finals (at Buenos Aires and TMS Monte Carlo) and progressed to the semifinals at Roland Garros (his best Grand Slam performance to date).

• Although all of Coria’s 2003 highlights came on clay, he has found a degree of success on hard court in 2003. As well as the quarterfinal appearance at TMS Cincinnati described above, he reached the rounds of 16 at the Australian Open, TMS Indian Wells and TMS Miami, as well as the quarterfinals at Auckland, early in the year. He currently has a 16-7 win-loss record on hard courts this year.

• Having claimed his fifth tour title at 2003 Sopot, Coria reached a career high ranking of No. 5 on 11 August and has carried this ranking into the 2003 US Open.

• Coria could make his Davis Cup debut for Argentina in the World Group semifinals away to Spain in September.


NO. 4 ANDY RODDICK (USA) v NO. 12 SJENG SCHALKEN (NED)

Head-to-head: Roddick leads 2-1
2001 Washington Hard (O) FR Roddick 62 63
2001 TMS Paris Carpet (I) R32 Schalken 46 63 75
2003 Indianapolis Hard (O) SF Roddick 63 62

Roddick v Schalken

21 Age 26
4 Entry Ranking 12
10 Titles 8
29-11 Career Grand Slam Record 41-33
Semifinalist
2003 Australian Open,
2003 Wimbledon Best Grand Slam Result Semifinalist
2002 US Open
12-3 US Open Record 16-8
161-56 Career Record 257-230
99-33 Career Record – Hard 129-114
59-13 2003 Record 33-18
38-7 2003 Record – Hard 17-9
3-2 Career Five-Set Record 9-14
1 Comebacks from 0-2 down 1
71-40 Career Tie-break Record 92-95
29-12 2003 Tie-break Record 11-5
8:32 Total Time on Court 9:11

• Roddick defeated Xavier Malisse 63 64 76 in the round of 16, becoming the second man through to the quarterfinals following the rain delays Monday-Wednesday. Roddick’s round of 16 match against Malisse was the only one completed by close of play on Wednesday, Agassi’s round of 16 match against Taylor Dent having been the only match finished on Tuesday.

• In his first round match here, Roddick defeated Tim Henman, the highest ranked non-seed in the draw, 63 76 63. This win avenged his loss to the Briton in the semifinals at Washington, his only loss on the summer hard court circuit. In the second round, Roddick defeated Ivan Ljubicic 63 67 63 76, turning 21 during the match, which spanned two days, starting at 9.01pm on 29 August and finishing at 12.07am on 30 August (Roddick’s birthday). Roddick defeated Brazil’s Flavio Saretta 61 63 63 in the third round.

• Roddick is bidding for the 100th hard court victory of his career today.

• This is Roddick’s fourth US Open, and he now has his third successive appearance in the US Open quarterfinals. The US Open was the first Grand Slam tournament at which Roddick reached the quarterfinals, having first advanced this far in 2001, in just his fourth major.

• To date, the quarterfinals have been a barrier for Roddick in his home Grand Slam event.

• If Roddick loses a third US Open quarterfinal today, it may be a good omen for Schalken. In his previous two quarterfinals here, Roddick has been stopped by the eventual champion.

Roddick’s US Open quarterfinal appearances
Year Result Score
2001 Lost to eventual champion Lleyton Hewitt 67 63 64 36 64
2002 Lost to eventual champion Pete Sampras 63 62 64
2003 v Sjeng Schalken ???

• Until the start of 2003, Roddick’s best Grand Slam performances had all come at Flushing Meadows. However this year he has won two Grand Slam quarterfinal matches, advancing to semifinals at the Australian Open and at Wimbledon. In Australia, he defeated Younes El Aynaoui 46 76 46 64 2119 in the quarters before falling to Rainer Schuettler 75 26 63 63; at Wimbledon, Roddick defeated Jonas Bjorkman 64 62 64 in the quarters then lost to eventual champion Roger Federer 76 63 63.

• Roddick’s 46 76 46 64 2119 quarterfinal defeat of El Aynaoui at this year’s Australian Open, which he won in exactly five hours, producing the longest fifth set (in number of games) in men’s singles in all-time Grand Slam history. In total number of games played (83) it was the joint-longest men’s singles match in a Grand Slam tournament since the introduction of the tiebreak (tying with Philippoussis v Schalken at 2000 Wimbledon).

• Against Dutchmen, Roddick has a 7-2 career record. The US Open is the only Grand Slam tournament where Roddick has faced a Dutchman, and he has a 2-0 record against the nation here. Last year, he had back-to-back wins over Martin Verkerk 76 63 64 in the first round and Raemon Sluiter 62 64 64 in the second round.

• Roddick is the youngest man left in the draw here at 21 years and six days old. The next youngest is No. 5 seed Guillermo Coria, who is currently 21 years and seven months old.

• Roddick was the US Open junior boys' champion three years ago, defeating Robby Ginepri 61 63 in the 2000 final. The same year he made his senior debut as a wild card, losing in the opening round to Albert Costa 63 67 61 64. Two other former junior champions, today’s opponent Schalken (1994) and David Nalbandian (1998) are also through to the last eight. To date, Stefan Edberg is the only male to win boys’ and men’s singles titles here, winning the boys’ title in 1983 and the men’s title in 1991 and 1992.

• With his round of 16 defeat of Malisse here, Roddick won his 16th consecutive match and claimed the record for the longest winning streak of the year. He was previously in a tie with Roger Federer and Guillermo Coria for a tour-best 15 successive victories this season. While Roddick’s and Coria’s winning streaks were compiled on a single surface, hard court and clay respectively, Federer’s took in matches on grass (at Halle and Wimbledon) and clay (Gstaad).

• Roddick compiled his 16-match winning streak by winning back-to-back Masters Series titles at Montreal and Cincinnati, then winning four matches here. In Montreal, Roddick defeated David Nalbandian 61 63 in the final; in Cincinnati, Roddick overcame good friend Mardy Fish 46 76 76, Fish having held two match points on Roddick’s serve at 4-5 in the third set.

• In his 16 straight match wins described above, Roddick has lost just four sets.

• With 38 hard court wins for the year through the round of 16 here, Roddick leads the tour for victories on the surface this season. The top six men on the 2003 hard court wins list all reached the round of 16 here.

2003 hard court leaders*

Hard court
win-loss
Andy Roddick 38-7
Roger Federer 32-9
Paradorn Srichaphan 30-12
Rainer Schuettler 29-10
Andre Agassi 28-3
James Blake 27-13
Lleyton Hewitt 26-7


* through completion of the 2003 US Open round of 16
Players in bold still active in the tournament

• Roddick has lost just one of 25 hard court matches played since the start of the summer hard court circuit (through the round of 16 at the US Open), that loss being to eventual champion Tim Henman in the semifinals at Washington, 16 63 76. Roddick won the title a week before that at Indianapolis, defeating Paradorn Srichaphan 76 64 in the final.

• Before the start of the US Open, Roddick had a tour-best 34 hard court match wins (and seven losses). But in the past 13 years, only one player has entered the US Open leading the tour in hard court match wins and gone on to win the tournament. Pete Sampras achieved this feat in 1993. On three other occasions, the tour’s hard court wins leader entering the US Open has been runner-up. [More details can be found on pages 10-11 of the Preview.]

• Roddick also led the tour for hard court wins for the season coming into the 2002 US Open. He had a 30-9 win-loss record on the surface before arriving at last year’s event.

• The last man to turn multiple titles during the summer hard court season into complete US Open success was Patrick Rafter, who in 1998 won at Toronto, Cincinnati and Long Island then successfully defended his US Open crown. On the other hand, in the last 15 years, there have been four instances of a player winning multiple summer hard court tournaments only to lose in the first round of the US Open. [More details on pages 11-12 of the Preview.]

• Interestingly, Roddick’s coach Brad Gilbert won three hard court tournaments coming into the US Open in 1989. Gilbert won titles at Stratton, Livingston and Cincinnati, but lost in the first round here.

• Having also won titles at St Polten (clay) and at Queen’s (grass) earlier in the season, Roddick jointly leads the tour for titles won so far in 2003. He and Roger Federer, who lost in the round of 16, both have five.

• Schalken defeated No. 8 seed Rainer Schuettler 61 46 63 64 to reach the US Open quarterfinals for the second time. In the third round, Schalken defeated qualifier Ivo Karlovic 76 76 76. He defeated Lars Burgsmuller 46 26 62 62 60 in the second round and Julien Boutter 62 63 62 in the first round.

• Schalken’s round of 16 match against Schuettler was due to be played on Tuesday, but because of the rain did not start until Wednesday evening. It was suspended overnight due to further rain with Schalken leading 5-1, and was completed on Thursday.

• Schalken’s defeat of Burgsmuller in the second round was his 23rd career five-set match, but marked the first time he had come back from two-sets-to-love down.

• This is Schalken’s ninth consecutive US Open, having made his debut here in 1995. He has now reached at least the quarterfinals in successive years, having never advanced beyond the third round previously.

• Schalken is today bidding to equal his best result in a Grand Slam event, achieved at last year’s US Open. He reached the semifinals, as No. 24 seed defeating Gustavo Kuerten 63 76 67 76 in the round of 16 and No. 28 seed Fernando Gonzalez 67 63 63 67 76 in the quarterfinals before falling to eventual champion Pete Sampras 76 76 62.

• This marks the eighth occasion that a Dutchman has reached the US Open quarterfinals in the Open Era. The seven previous occurrences are shared between four men.

Dutchmen in US Open Quarterfinals (Open Era)
Year Player QF result Eventual finish
1968 Tom Okker Defeated Pancho Gonzales 1416 63 108 63 Runner-up
1971 Tom Okker Defeated Clark Graebner 62 63 64 SFs
1991 Paul Haarhuis Lost to Jimmy Connors 46 76 64 62 --
1997 Richard Krajicek Lost to Greg Rusedski 75 76 76 --
1999 Richard Krajicek Lost to Yevgeny Kafelnikov 76 76 36 16 76 --
2000 Richard Krajicek Lost to Pete Sampras 46 76 64 62 ---
2002 Sjeng Schalken Defeated Fernando Gonzalez 67 63 63 67 76 SFs
2003 Sjeng Schalken v Andy Roddick ??? ???

• At the 2002 US Open, Schalken became just the second Dutchman to reach the semifinals here in the Open Era, and the first for 31 years. Tom Okker was the first, reaching the semis in 1968 and 1971, and going on to a runner-up finish in 1968, losing in the final to Arthur Ashe 1412 57 63 36 63.

• Krajicek and Tom Okker were the only two Dutchmen to reach the semifinals of any major until Schalken reached the semis here last year. He was swiftly followed by another, Martin Verkerk, who reached the semifinals at this year’s Roland Garros and went on to become the first Dutchman in history to reach the Roland Garros final (finishing runner-up to Juan Carlos Ferrero).

• Schalken has a 5-6 win-loss record against Americans at Grand Slam events. He lost his only previous encounter with an American at the US Open, that being his semifinal loss to Sampras here last year (see above).

• Schalken was the 1994 US Open boys’ champion, defeating Mehdi Tahiri of Morocco 62 76 in the final. Two other former junior champions, David Nalbandian (1998) and Andy Roddick (2000) are also through to the quarterfinals. To date, Stefan Edberg is the only male to win boys’ and men’s singles titles here, winning the boys’ title in 1983 and the men’s title in 1991 and 1992.

• Schalken had mixed results coming into the US Open. He reached the semifinals at Indianapolis (losing to Andy Roddick 63 62), but in his next three tournaments he failed to progress beyond the second round. He fell in the second round at Los Angeles (to Nicolas Kiefer 64 64) and TMS Cincinnati (to James Blake 61 64), and succumbed to Mariano Zabaleta 61 61 in the first round at TMS Montreal.

• Schalken’s best result of the year came on grass at ‘s-Hertogenbosch where he won eighth career title, defeating Arnaud Clement 63 64 in the final.

• In 2003, Schalken’s best Grand Slam performance until now came at Wimbledon, where he progressed to the quarterfinals for a second consecutive year. Having defeated Victor Hanescu 62 64 76 in the third round and Rainer Schuettler 75 64 75 in the round of 16, he fell to eventual champion Roger Federer 63 64 64 in the quarterfinals. At this year’s Australian Open, he fell in the second round to Mario Ancic 63 16 67 64 64 and at Roland Garros in the third round to Fernando Gonzalez 76 63 31 ret (due to illness).

• Schalken has won five of his eight career titles on hard court.


LOUIS ARMSTRONG STADIUM

NO. 3 JUAN CARLOS FERRERO (ESP) v NO. 6 LLEYTON HEWITT (AUS)

Head-to-head: Hewitt leads 3-2
2000 Scottsdale Hard (O) SF Hewitt 64 62
2000 Davis Cup WG-F Clay (I) R4 Ferrero 62 76 46 64
2001 Roland Garros Clay (O) QF Ferrero 64 62 61
2001 Tennis Masters Cup Hard (I) SF Hewitt 64 63
2002 Tennis Masters Cup Hard (I) FR Hewitt 75 75 26 26 64

This is a match-up between two of the three Grand Slam champions through to the last eight (the third being No. 1 seed Andre Agassi). As befits the 2003 Roland Garros champion, Ferrero has won both of the pair’s clay court encounters, while Lleyton Hewitt, 2001 US Open winner (and 2002 Wimbledon winner) has won their three previous meetings on hard court. Their last meeting, in the final of the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai in 2002, was their closest: Hewitt won in five sets, having trailed 1-3 in the final set.

Ferrero v Hewitt

23 Age 22
3 Entry Ranking 6
10 Titles 19
47-13 Career Grand Slam Record 56-19
Champion
2003 Roland Garros Best Grand Slam Result Champion
2001 US Open,
2002 Wimbledon
11-4 US Open Record 23-3
221-92 Career Record 294-93
79-49 Career Record – Hard 179-55
54-12 2003 Record 36-11
19-7 2003 Record – Hard 26-7
12-8 Career Five-Set Record 11-8
1 Comebacks from 0-2 down 1
74-64 Career Tie-break Record 74-63
12-11 2003 Tie-break Record 8-8
10:10 Total Time on Court 7:16

• Ferrero defeated qualifier Jan Vacek 62 46 63 62 in the first round, Jurgen Melzer 16 76 62 64 in the second round, No. 33 seed Juan Ignacio Chela 75 75 61 in the third round and Todd Martin 62 64 36 57 63 in the round of 16. The match started on Tuesday, but was suspended due to rain with Ferrero having won the first set 62. It was not completed until two days later, on Thursday.

• Ferrero is making his first appearance in the quarterfinals of the US Open. His best result previously was a round of 16 finish in 2000, when he defeated Roger Federer 75 76 16 76 in the third round before falling to No. 6 seed and eventual champion Marat Safin 61 62 62.

• This is Ferrero’s fifth US Open. After reaching the round of 16 in 2000, Ferrero reached the third round in 2001, losing to Tommy Robredo 76 46 64 46 76, and again in 2002, losing to Fernando Gonzalez 64 64 64.

• For the second time this year, Ferrero is bidding to pass the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament other than Roland Garros for the first time in his career. Ferrero reached the quarterfinals at the 2003 Australian Open as the No. 4 seed, but lost at this stage, to Wayne Ferreira 76 76 61.

• The 2003 Australian Open marked Ferrero’s first appearance in a Grand Slam tournament quarterfinal outside of Roland Garros. At the French Open, Ferrero has reached at least the semifinals in all four of his appearances.

• By reaching the quarterfinals here, Ferrero has kept intact his record in 2003 of posting his best result at each of the Grand Slam events. At the Australian Open he reached the quarterfinals for the first time, he was champion at Roland Garros for the first time, and at Wimbledon he reached the round of 16 for the first time.

• Ferrero is attempting to become the first Spaniard to reach the US Open semifinals since Carlos Moya in 1998, Moya losing at that stage to Mark Philippoussis 61 64 57 64. This year, Moya had the chance to join Ferrero for a record two Spaniards through to the US Open quarterfinals, but lost his round of 16 match on Thursday to No. 22 seed Younes El Aynaoui 76 76 46 64.

• Only two Spanish men have reached the semis here in the Open Era, Moya following in the path of Manuel Orantes, who won the title in 1975. Orantes defeated Guillermo Vilas 46 16 62 75 64 in the semifinals then Jimmy Connors 64 63 63 in the final.

• In the Open Era, Spanish men have made by far the greatest number of their Grand Slam semifinal appearances at Roland Garros. If Ferrero wins today, the US Open will edge into second place for Spanish semifinal appearances.

Spanish appearances* in Grand Slam semifinals (Open Era)
Aus RG Wimb US
2 22 2 2
* by player, not by year

• Ferrero has a 15-5 record against Australians, which improves to a 6-1 record in Grand Slam play. This is only his second meeting with an Australian at the US Open, having defeated Wayne Arthurs 76 76 36 75 in the first round here last year.

• Ferrero’s 15 wins against Aussie opponents includes two memorable wins in the 2000 Davis Cup final, held in Barcelona on clay. Ferrero defeated Patrick Rafter 67 76 62 31 ret. (cramping) in the second rubber and overcame today’s opponent Hewitt 62 76 46 64 in the decisive fourth rubber to hand Spain its first Davis Cup title.

• Ferrero has won his last four matches against Australians, and has not lost to the nation at all this year.

Ferrero’s Aussie winning streak
Event Player Score
2003 Sydney Defeated Jaymon Crabb 57 75 63 in 1st rd
2003 Rotterdam Defeated Wayne Arthurs 76 76 in 1st rd
2003 TMS Monte Carlo Defeated Wayne Arthurs 64 61 in 1st rd
2003 TMS Rome Defeated Mark Philippoussis 76 64 in 1st rd

• Ferrero played two tournaments during the pre-US Open summer hard court circuit. He reached the round of 16 at TMS Montreal, falling to Karol Kucera 63 75, and the second round at TMS Cincinnati, where he fell to Gaston Gaudio 67 76 64.

• Ferrero is seeded No. 3 here, his best seeding at the US Open and his joint-highest seeding at a Grand Slam event (he was also seeded third at 2003 Roland Garros and 2003 Wimbledon).

• Playing in his second Roland Garros final, Ferrero claimed his first Grand Slam title in June by defeating Albert Costa 63 76 64 in the semifinals and Martin Verkerk 61 63 62 in the final. His semifinal victory of Costa avenged his defeat by his fellow Spaniard in the Roland Garros final the year previously.

• Ferrero is one of five men who started in the draw owning one Grand Slam title: the others were Michael Chang (1989 Roland Garros), who lost in the opening round, Albert Costa (2002 Roland Garros), who lost in the second round, plus Carlos Moya (1998 Roland Garros) and Roger Federer (2003 Wimbledon) who both lost in the round of 16.

• Ferrero has won three titles this year, all on clay – TMS Monte Carlo, Valencia and Roland Garros. He began the year with a runner-up finish at Sydney on hard court, holding a match point against Hyung-Taik Lee in the final but falling 46 76 76.

• Until now, his best results on hard court this year were his final appearance at Sydney and his quarterfinal showing at the Australian Open (in each he won four matches).

• Two of Ferrero’s ten career titles have come on hard court: 2002 Hong Kong and 2001 Dubai. He has reached three further finals on hard court: 2000 Dubai, 2002 Tennis Masters Cup-Shanghai and 2003 Sydney.

• Hewitt defeated No. 11 seed Paradorn Srichaphan 46 62 64 62 in the round of 16, ending the Thai’s eight-match winning streak. The match started on Tuesday, but was suspended due to rain with Srichaphan leading 43. It was not completed until two days later, on Thursday.

• Before that, he defeated Radek Stepanek 61 30 ret., the Czech conceding the match after suffering spasms in the lower back. Hewitt defeated Hyung-Taik Lee 57 62 62 64 in the second round and Victor Hanescu 63 62 62 in the first round.

• This is the fourth straight year that Hewitt has reached the US Open quarterfinals. His earliest exit here was on his debut in 1999, when he lost in the third round to Andrei Medvedev 36 63 36 64 63.

• Just by advancing to the quarterfinals, Hewitt has recorded his best result in a Grand Slam tournament in 2003.

Hewitt’s 2003 Grand Slam record
Event Finish Score
Australian Open R16 Lost to No. 18 Younes El Aynaoui 67 76 76 64
Roland Garros 3rd rd Lost to No. 28 Tommy Robredo 46 16 63 62 63
Wimbledon 1st rd Lost to (Q) Ivo Karlovic 16 76 63 64
US Open ??? Plays No. 3 Juan Carlos Ferrero

• Hewitt lost in the first round at 2003 Wimbledon, where he was upset by qualifier Ivo Karlovic as described above, becoming the first defending Wimbledon champion to lose in the first round there in the Open Era, and only the second in history.

• Hewitt has a poor record against Spaniards in Grand Slam tournaments, having won two of eight matches played against the nation. His most recent meeting with a Spaniard was at Roland Garros, where he lost to Tommy Robredo in the third round as described above. Hewitt won his lone previous encounter with a Spaniard at the US Open, defeating Albert Portas 61 63 64 in the third round in 2001.

• This is the first time that Hewitt has not been seeded No. 1 at a Grand Slam event since the 2001 US Open (he was No. 4 seed here when he won). Hewitt came into the 2003 US Open with an Entry Ranking of No. 6, which he first held on 11 August. This is his lowest ranking for nearly two years, since 18 June 2001.

• This is Hewitt’s fifth US Open. Last year he reached the semifinals, falling to No. 6 seed Andre Agassi 64 76 67 62.

• Hewitt won the tournament in 2001 for his first Grand Slam title, defeating Pete Sampras in the final 76 61 61 to become the second-youngest US Open men’s champion of the Open Era. He and two-time winner Andre Agassi are the only former US Open champions to play in this year’s draw. Both are through to the quarterfinals.

• Hewitt has won two titles so far in 2003, both on hard court. At Scottsdale he defeated countryman Mark Philippoussis 64 64 in the final, and the following week at TMS Indian Wells he defeated Gustavo Kuerten 61 61 in the final. He was also runner-up in Los Angeles, having held three match points against Wayne Ferreira in the final before falling 63 46 75.

• Hewitt has won 19 titles overall and 13 of these victories were on hard court. He is third among active players for titles won on the surface.
Hard court title leaders (active)
Player Hard Court Titles Last Hard Court Title
Andre Agassi 44 2003 TMS Miami
Thomas Enqvist 13 2002 Marseille*
Lleyton Hewitt 13 2003 TMS Indian Wells
Wayne Ferreira 11 2003 Los Angeles
Yevgeny Kafelnikov 9 2002 Tashkent
Tim Henman 9 2003 Washington
Marcelo Rios 7 2001 Hong Kong
Mark Philippoussis 7 2001 Memphis*
* played on indoor hard court

• Hewitt has led the Australian Davis Cup team to the Davis Cup semifinals this year, and will be part of the team that faces Switzerland at home in Melbourne on September 19-21. Through Australia’s first round defeat of Great Britain and their win over Sweden in the quarterfinals, Hewitt is undefeated in Davis Cup play this year, with a 2-0 win-loss record in singles, and 1-0 in doubles.

NO. 13 DAVID NALBANDIAN (ARG) v NO. 22 YOUNES EL AYNAOUI (MAR)

Head-to-head: El Aynaoui leads 1-0
2003 TMS Miami Hard (O) R32 El Aynaoui 63 46 64

Nalbandian v El Aynaoui

21 Age 31
13 Entry Ranking 21
2 Titles 5
23-8 Career Grand Slam Record 39-28
Runner-up
2002 Wimbledon Best Grand Slam Result Quarterfinalist
2000, 2003 Aus Open,
2002-03 US Open
6-2 US Open Record 9-6
89-52 Career Record 250-199
30-19 Career Record – Hard 82-72
36-17 2003 Record 37-20
19-7 2003 Record – Hard 20-9
6-1 Career Five-Set Record 12-5
0 Comebacks from 0-2 down 2
34-20 Career Tie-break Record 120-97
14-7 2003 Tie-break Record 25-16
12:04 Total Time on Court 11:44

• Nalbandian scored his fifth successive victory over Wimbledon champion Roger Federer 36 76 64 63 in the round of 16 to advance to his first US Open quarterfinal. The entire match was delayed by two days because of the rain: having been scheduled to take place on Tuesday, it was played on Thursday.

• Before that, Nalbandian defeated qualifier Philip Kohlschreiber in the first round 64 76 63, Jarkko Nieminen 57 63 61 46 76 in the second round and, in a battle of Wimbledon finalists, No. 20 seed Mark Philippoussis 75 67 63 62 in the third round.

• Nalbandian is playing his third successive US Open. He has never previously been beyond the third round here.

• As a qualifier in 2001, Nalbandian advanced to the third round by defeating No. 31 seed Nicolas Escude 46 63 46 63 75 in the second round, losing to No. 7 Yevgeny Kafelnikov 36 64 62 62. Last year, as Wimbledon runner-up and No. 16 seed, Nalbandian was upset in the first round by Sargis Sargsian 61 64 64.

• Nalbandian is attempting to reach his second Grand Slam tournament semifinal today. He reached his first at 2002 Wimbledon, en route to his runner-up finish, becoming just the second Argentine (after Guillermo Vilas) to reach a Grand Slam tournament final. Playing in his first senior grass court event, Nalbandian defeated Nicolas Lapentti 64 64 46 46 64 in the quarterfinals then Xavier Malisse 76 64 16 26 62 in the semifinals before losing in the final to Lleyton Hewitt 61 63 62.

• This is Nalbandian’s third Grand Slam quarterfinal overall. In addition to 2002 Wimbledon, he reached the last eight at this year’s Australian Open, defeating Roger Federer 64 36 61 16 63 in the third round then losing his quarterfinal match to eventual runner-up Rainer Schuettler 63 57 61 60.

• With No. 5 Guillermo Coria also through to the last eight, this is the first time in Open Era history that two Argentines have reached the quarterfinals at the US Open. Guillermo Vilas and Jose-Luis Clerc both reached the last 16 here in 1979 and 1981, but each time lost their matches.

• Nalbandian and Coria are the third and fourth Argentines in the Open Era to reach the US Open quarterfinals, after Guillermo Vilas, whom Coria is named after, and Mariano Zabaleta.

• To date, only one Argentine has won his US Open quarterfinal in the Open Era. That was the legendary Vilas, who reached the semis three times here and won the title in 1977. The US Open was played on clay 1975-77.

Argentines in US Open quarterfinals (Open Era)
Year Player Quarterfinal result Eventual finish
1975 Guillermo Vilas Defeated Jaime Fillol 64 60 61 SFs
1976 Guillermo Vilas Defeated Eddie Dibbs 61 26 76 76 SFs
1977 Guillermo Vilas Defeated Ray Moore 61 61 60 Champion
1982 Guillermo Vilas Defeated Tom Gullikson 62 61 63 SFs
2001 Mariano Zabaleta Lost to Marat Safin 64 64 62 --
2003
2003 Guillermo Coria
David Nalbandian v Andre Agassi ???
v Younes El Aynaoui ??? ???
???

• Nalbandian is part of a wider success story in Argentine men’s tennis. The country reached its first Davis Cup semifinal for 12 years in 2002 and has returned to the semis in 2003. Argentina currently boasts nine players inside the top 100 on the ATP Entry Rankings: Guillermo Coria (5), Nalbandian (13), Agustin Calleri (19), Mariano Zabaleta (27), Gaston Gaudio (30), Juan Ignacio Chela (41), Jose Acasuso (75), Mariano Puerta (91) and Franco Squillari (97).

• This is Nalbandian’s third career match against a Moroccan opponent. He lost his only previous match against El Aynaoui at this year’s TMS Miami, as detailed in the above head-to-head, but had previously defeated Karim Alami 75 61 in the second round at 2001 Vina Del Mar.

• Nalbandian was the 1998 US Open boys’ champion, defeating Federer 63 75 in the final as described above. Two other former junior champions, Sjeng Schalken (1994) and Andy Roddick (2000) are also through to the quarterfinals. To date, Stefan Edberg is the only male to win boys’ and men’s singles titles here, winning the boys’ title in 1983 and the men’s title in 1991 and 1992.

• Nalbandian’s second round win over Nieminen extended his strong win-loss record in five-set matches to 6-1. Nalbandian has now played one five-set match in each Grand Slam event this year, with a 3-1 win-loss record.

Nalbandian’s 2003 five-set matches
Grand Slam Opponent Round Result Eventual Finish
Australian Open Roger Federer Round of 16 Won 64 36 61 16 63 Quarterfinals
Roland Garros Nicholas Coutelot Second Lost 63 63 46 26 61 --
Wimbledon Karol Kucera Third Won 64 57 67 64 62 Round of 16
US Open Jarkko Nieminen Second Won 57 63 61 46 76 ???

• Nalbandian has won 12 of 14 matches played on the summer hard court circuit, including his four matches here. He reached his first final of the year at TMS Montreal, defeating Rainer Schuettler 36 62 62 in the semifinals before losing to Andy Roddick 61 63. The following week, Nalbandian advanced to the quarterfinals at TMS Cincinnati, losing to eventual runner-up Mardy Fish 76 63.

• Apart from TMS Montreal, Nalbandian’s other stand-out hard court result of 2003, before here, came at the Australian Open, where he advanced to the quarterfinals before losing to eventual runner-up Rainer Schuettler 63 57 61 60.

• Nalbandian also reached the semifinals on clay at TMS Hamburg (losing to Agustin Calleri 64 61), and advanced to the last 16 at this year’s Wimbledon (falling to Tim Henman 62 67 75 63).

• Nalbandian is likely to be part of the Argentine Davis Cup team that travels to Malaga to play Spain in this year’s World Group semifinals on 19-21 September. Nalbandian has a 2-1 career record in Davis Cup singles, 3-0 in doubles.

• El Aynaoui progressed to the US Open quarterfinals for a second consecutive year with a 76 76 46 64 victory over No. 7 seed Carlos Moya in the round of 16. The entire match was delayed by two days because of the rain: having been scheduled to take place on Tuesday, it was played on Thursday.

• Previously, El Aynaoui defeated wild card Alex Kim 75 76 63 in the first round, 17-year-old Rafael Nadal 76 63 76 in the second, and No. 10 seed Jiri Novak in the third round 76 57 36 63 76.

• El Aynaoui has played, and won, seven tiebreaks this tournament – more than any player left in the draw.

• Overall, this is El Aynaoui’s fourth appearance in a Grand Slam quarterfinal, but he has yet to advance to a semifinal. He reached his first Grand Slam quarterfinal unseeded at the 2000 Australian Open, defeating Arnaud Clement 36 63 64 36 108 in the round of 16 before losing to Yevgeny Kafelnikov 60 63 76.

• No Moroccan man has ever reached the semifinals of a Grand Slam tournament in the Open Era. The full list of Moroccan quarterfinalists in that time is as follows.

Moroccans in Grand Slam quarterfinals
Grand Slam Event Player Quarterfinal Result Score
1997 Roland Garros Hicham Arazi Lost to Sergi Bruguera 46 63 62 62
1998 Roland Garros Hicham Arazi Lost to Cedric Pioline 36 62 76 46 63
2000 Australian Open Hicham Arazi Lost to Andre Agassi 64 64 62
2000 Australian Open Younes El Aynaoui Lost to Yevgeny Kafelnikov 60 63 76
2002 US Open Younes El Aynaoui Lost to Lleyton Hewitt 61 76 46 62
2003 Australian Open Younes El Aynaoui Lost to Andy Roddick 46 76 46 64 2119
2003 US Open Younes El Aynaoui v David Nalbandian ???

• For the second consecutive year, El Aynaoui is attempting to become the second man from the African continent to reach the semifinals of the US Open. In 1980, Johan Kriek, while still a South African citizen, reached the semis before losing to Bjorn Borg.

• Only three African men have reached the semifinals at any Grand Slam tournament in the Open Era. In addition to Kriek (who was also a semifinalist at the 1981 Australian Open en route to winning the title), Kevin Curren and Wayne Ferreira have also reached the last four of a major. (Curren became a US citizen in 1985).

• This is El Aynaoui’s 37th career match against an Argentine, and to date he has a 21-14 win-loss record against the nation (not counting one loss by walkover). His last victory over an Argentine came at 2003 Stuttgart, where he defeated Gaston Etlis 76 64 in the first round.

• El Aynaoui is playing his seventh US Open. He reached the quarterfinals at the 2002 US Open, before falling to No. 1 seed Lleyton Hewitt 61 76 46 62 as described above.

• Prior to last year’s quarterfinal finish, El Aynaoui had a poor US Open record. He fell in the opening round in 1994 (his debut) and 1996, reached the second round in 1999, and posted two more first round losses in 2000 and 2001.

• El Aynaoui’s run-up to the 2003 US Open included three US hard court events – TMS Montreal, TMS Cincinnati and Long Island. He posted second round losses in Montreal (to Juan Carlos Ferrero 63 64) and Cincinnati (to Zabaleta 67 64 75) but won three consecutive matches at Long Island, falling to James Blake 63 61 in the semifinals.

• El Aynaoui has had a successful year. He reached the final at Casablanca (losing to Julien Boutter 62 26 61), the semifinals at Doha (losing to Stefan Koubek 76 76) and Long Island (losing to James Blake 63 61) and reached the quarterfinals at TMS Miami (losing to Andre Agassi 76 46 61).

• El Aynaoui was involved in an epic quarterfinal match at this year’s Australian Open. Playing Andy Roddick, he lost 46 76 46 64 2119 in exactly five hours, producing the longest fifth set (in number of games) in men’s singles in all-time Grand Slam history. In total number of games played (83) it was the joint-longest men’s singles match in a Grand Slam tournament since the introduction of the tiebreak (tying with Philippoussis v Schalken at 2000 Wimbledon).

• El Aynaoui’s wife Anne Sophie gave birth to the couple’s third son, Noam Ismail, on 21 August. Having played Long Island and then electing to come straight here, El Aynaoui has only seen pictures of Noam via e-mail.

• El Aynaoui lived in the Ronald McDonald house at 71st street in Manhattan for seven months in 1997, having had ankle surgery here and finding himself unable to afford the fees to stay in the hospital he had been in for a month.
Top of Page

2003 US OPEN
DAY EIGHT MEN’S NOTES
Monday 1 September 2003
Round of 16 Top Half

Show court matches

ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM: No. 1 Andre Agassi (USA) v Taylor Dent (USA)
No. 3 Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP) v Todd Martin (USA)

LOUIS ARMSTRONG No. 6 Lleyton Hewitt (AUS) v No. 11 Paradorn Srichaphan (THA)

GRANDSTAND: No. 5 Guillermo Coria (ARG) v Jonas Bjorkman (SWE)




On court today…

• The third all-American match-up of the men’s draw, this time between Andre Agassi and Taylor Dent. Agassi is looking for his 200th Grand Slam tournament victory against Dent, who is appearing in his first Grand Slam tournament round of 16.

• 1999 runner-up Todd Martin attempts to win his 100th Grand Slam match against Juan Carlos Ferrero, bidding for his first US Open quarterfinal berth.

• Paradorn Srichaphan bids to overturn a 1-4 record against 2001 champion Lleyton Hewitt, and become just the third different Asian man to reach the quarterfinals here in the Open Era.

• In addition to Agassi and Martin, a third ‘thirtysomething’ in action today, 31-year-old Jonas Bjorkman, has a first-time meeting with Guillermo Coria, playing in his first US Open round of 16.



ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM

NO. 1 ANDRE AGASSI (USA) v TAYLOR DENT (USA)

Head-to-head: Agassi leads 2-0
2000 Wimbledon Grass (O) R128 Agassi 26 63 60 40 ret.
2001 TMS Miami Hard (O) R64 Agassi 64 62

This is the third all-American match-up in the men’s tournament, the other two being Todd Martin v Robert Yim in the first round, and Martin v Ginepri in the third round. The older player – Martin – prevailed each time. At 33, Agassi is just short of 11 years older than Dent.

Agassi has won both the pair’s previous meetings, the first of which was by retirement when Dent partially tore a tendon in his right knee at Wimbledon in 2000.

Agassi v Dent

33 Age 22
1 Entry Ranking 73
58 Titles 2
199-44 Career Grand Slam Record 10-11
65-15 US Open Record 5-5
780-238 Career Record 50-52
506-130 Career Record – Hard 36-37
42-7 2003 Record 17-10
27-3 2003 Record – Hard 12-3
23-19 Career Five-Set Record 1-3
5 Comebacks from 0-2 down 0
168-137 Career Tie-break Record 26-27
12-4 2003 Tie-break Record 10-9

• Agassi defeated Alex Corretja 61 62 62 in the first round, and Andreas Vinciguerra 76 61 64 in the second round. In the third round, Agassi scored his sixth successive victory over Yevgeny Kafelnikov, winning 63 76 64 to extend his lead in their personal rivalry to 8-4.

• Agassi’s third round encounter with Kafelnikov was played over two days, the only one of Saturday’s rain-interrupted matches to do so. It was suspended on Saturday, after two previous rain breaks, with Agassi leading by a set and trailing 0-1 0-15 in the second set. The match was completed on Sunday.

• Agassi is one win away from his 200th victory in a Grand Slam match. He currently stands in fourth place for the most Grand Slam match wins in the Open Era, but if he were to win the 2003 US Open, Agassi would equal Sampras in third place.
Top Open Era Grand Slam performances
Overall US Open
Jimmy Connors 233-49 98-17
Ivan Lendl 222-49 73-13
Pete Sampras 203-38 71-9
Andre Agassi 199-44 65-15

• Agassi is playing his 18th consecutive US Open, having made his debut as a wild card in 1986. This is the most appearances by any man in the draw.

• Agassi has reached the round of 16 for the 13th time at the US Open. He has twice lost at this stage of the event, in 1997-98, falling to eventual champion Patrick Rafter 63 76 46 63 in 1997 and to Karol Kucera 63 63 67 16 63 in 1998.

• Following the retirements of Pete Sampras and Michael Chang this week, Agassi is now the only active American male Grand Slam champion.

• Agassi owns eight Grand Slam titles in total. A third US title would give him sole possession of sixth place for the most all-time Grand Slam titles.
Top Grand Slam titleholders
1. Pete Sampras 14
2. Roy Emerson 12
3. Bjorn Borg 11
Rod Laver 11
5. Bill Tilden 10
6. Fred Perry 8
Ken Rosewall 8
Jimmy Connors 8
Ivan Lendl 8
Andre Agassi 8

• Agassi reached his fifth US Open final last year, losing to Pete Sampras 63 64 57 64 in the 34th and last meeting between the great rivals. Agassi won the US Open title in 1994 (defeating Michael Stich 61 76 75 in the final) and again in 1999 (defeating Todd Martin 64 67 67 63 62). The only other former US Open champion in the draw is 2001 winner Lleyton Hewitt.

• This is the first time Agassi has been seeded No. 1 at a Grand Slam event since the 2000 US Open. Then, he was upset in the second round by Arnaud Clement 63 62 64.

• The No. 1 seed has won the US Open title only eight times in 35 meetings. The last top seed to win the title here was Pete Sampras in 1996, when he successfully defended his US Open title. [For more detail see page 9 of the Preview.]

• Agassi’s last tournament before the US Open at TMS Montreal, where he lost in the quarterfinals to Rainer Schuettler 26 62 63. He only played one other event on the summer hard court circuit, reaching the semifinals at Washington the week previously before losing to Fernando Gonzalez 36 64 76.

• This is only Agassi’s 12th tournament this year. Although he has a 42-7 record to date and currently heads the ATP Entry Ranking, Agassi had more success in the first half of the season, when he collected four titles. He won the Australian Open for the fourth time, then claimed further hard court titles at San Jose and TMS Miami before winning on clay at Houston.

• Agassi is the tour’s all-time leader in hard court tournament titles, having won 44 tournaments (of 58 total) on hard courts.

• Dent won his first five-set match when he defeated No. 15 seed Fernando Gonzalez 76 67 36 76 64, saving a match point on his own serve at 5-4 in the fourth set. The match was interrupted by a two hour 39 minute rain delay with Dent leading by a set, and serving for the second set at 5-4.

• Dent defeated qualifier Robin Soderling 76 63 36 64 in the first round and Nikolay Davydenko 63 64 76 in the second.

• Before his third round match against 2002 quarterfinalist Gonzalez, Dent had lost all three five-set matches played.
Dent over five sets
Tournament Round Result
2001 Wimbledon 2nd Lost to Lleyton Hewitt 16 75 63 67 63
2002 Australian Open 3rd Lost to Adrian Voinea 36 63 64 36 63
2002 US Open 1st Lost to Raemon Sluiter 36 63 60 16 63
2003 US Open 3rd Defeated Fernando Gonzalez 76 67 36 76 64

• Dent has reached the round of 16 at a Grand Slam event for the first time in his career. Previously his best finish was the third round, achieved on two occasions: at the 2002 Australian Open (losing to Adrian Voinea 36 63 64 36 63) and at 2002 Wimbledon (losing to Wayne Arthurs 76 76 67 76).

• Dent has a 14-8 win-loss record against Americans, and has won three of his last four matches against countrymen, starting with his victory against Robert Kendrick, 62 75 in the first round at 2003 Queen’s (he went on to defeat another American, Cecil Mamiit, 64 64 in the second round).

• This is Dent’s sixth US Open. Last year he lost in the first round to Raemon Sluiter 36 63 60 16 63. It was the first time he played as a direct acceptance rather than as a wild card.

• Before this year, Dent had never won back-to-back matches at the US Open, falling in the first round in 1999, 2000 and 2002 and having a second round finish in 1998 and 2001.

• Dent did not play on the summer hard court circuit prior to the 2003 US Open. He was due to defend his title on grass at 2003 Newport, but withdrew due to a pinched nerve in his right hand and had been recovering from the injury.

• During the six weeks when Dent was recovering from his hand injury, he worked on his conditioning with his fitness trainer Nick Anthony, whom he has recently hired. Dent cites this as a contributing factor towards his success so far at the 2003 US Open.

• Dent is the son of former Australian player Phil Dent, who coached him earlier in his career. By reaching the round of 16 here, Dent has bettered his father’s US Open record – Phil Dent reached the third round here once, in 1973, falling to Niki Pilic 46 63 63 61.

• Dent performed well on hard court earlier in the season, winning his second career title indoors at Memphis by defeating compatriot Andy Roddick 61 64 in the final. He advanced to the semifinals at Scottsdale before losing to eventual champion Lleyton Hewitt 62 64.

• Dent’s other 2003 highlights are a quarterfinal finish at Queen’s (64-draw), where Roddick avenged his loss at Memphis and defeated Dent 63 76, and a quarterfinal finish at Nottingham, where Dent lost to Jonas Bjorkman by walkover due to a back injury.

NO. 3 JUAN CARLOS FERRERO (ESP) v TODD MARTIN (USA)

Head-to-head: Ferrero leads 1-0
2002 TMS Miami Hard (O) R64 Ferrero 46 76 63

Martin, the second oldest player left in the draw (after Agassi) at 33, is nearly 10 years older than his 23 year-old opponent Ferrero.

Ferrero v Martin

23 Age 33
3 Entry Ranking 93
10 Titles 8
46-13 Career Grand Slam Record 99-43
10-4 US Open Record 33-13
220-92 Career Record 401-218
78-49 Career Record – Hard 226-115
53-12 2003 Record 16-10
18-7 2003 Record – Hard 10-5
11-8 Career Five-Set Record 21-14
1 Comebacks from 0-2 down 8
74-64 Career Tie-break Record 185-140
12-11 2003 Tie-break Record 9-8

• Ferrero defeated qualifier Jan Vacek 62 46 63 62 in the first round, Jurgen Melzer 16 76 62 64 in the second round and No. 33 seed Juan Ignacio Chela 75 75 61 in the third round.

• This is Ferrero’s fifth US Open, and his round of 16 appearance here matches his best US Open performance to date. In 2000 he also reached the round of 16, where he defeated Roger Federer 75 76 16 76 in the third round before falling to No. 6 seed and eventual champion Marat Safin 61 62 62.

• Ferrero has played against Americans a total of 15 times in his career. Of those 15 matches, he has won 11 – his last win coming against Vince Spadea 63 64 in the semifinals at 2003 TMS Monte Carlo.

• In the previous two US Opens he has played, Ferrero reached the third round, losing to Tommy Robredo 76 46 64 46 76 in 2001 and Fernando Gonzalez 64 64 64 in 2002.

• By winning his first three matches here, Fererro has recorded three consecutive hard court wins for the first time since the Australian Open. During the summer hard court circuit Fererro reached the round of 16 at TMS Montreal, falling to Karol Kucera 63 75, and the second round at TMS Cincinnati, where he fell to Gaston Gaudio 67 76 64.

• At each Grand Slam event to date in 2003, Ferrero has posted his best career result at those events. At the Australian Open he reached the quarterfinals, he was champion at Roland Garros, and at Wimbledon he reached the round of 16. Ferrero therefore needs to reach the quarterfinals here to keep this run going and surpass his previous best showing.

• Ferrero is seeded No. 3 here, his best seeding at the US Open and his joint-highest seeding at a Grand Slam event (he was also seeded third at 2003 Roland Garros and 2003 Wimbledon).

• Playing in his second Roland Garros final, Ferrero claimed his first Grand Slam title in June by defeating Albert Costa 63 76 64 in the semifinals and Martin Verkerk 61 63 62 in the final. Ferrero is one of five men to start in the draw who own one Grand Slam title: the others were Michael Chang (1989 Roland Garros), who lost in the opening round, Albert Costa (2002 Roland Garros), who lost in the second round, Carlos Moya (1998 Roland Garros), and Roger Federer (2003 Wimbledon).

• Ferrero has won three titles this year, all on clay – TMS Monte Carlo, Valencia and Roland Garros. He began the year with a runner-up finish at Sydney on hard court, holding a match point against Hyung-Taik Lee in the final but falling 46 76 76. He best results on hard court this year remain his final appearance at Sydney and his quarterfinal showing at the Australian Open (in each he won four matches).

• Martin defeated countryman and wild card Robert Yim 61 76 62 in the first round, No. 16 seed Martin Verkerk 63 64 67 76 in the second round (his 400th career win) and another compatriot Robby Ginepri 67 76 64 64 in the third round.

• If Martin defeats Ferrero, he will have claimed the 100th Grand Slam match win of his career. By defeating Ginepri in the third round, he advanced to a 99-43 win-loss record at Slam events. The only other player left in the draw with more Grand Slam match wins is Agassi who, following his win over Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the third round, is currently on 199-44. Agassi needs to reach the quarterfinals here to become the fourth man in the Open Era to hold 200 or more Grand Slam match wins (for more details, see page seven of the preview).

• By winning his third round match against Ginepri, Martin has secured a round of 16 berth at the US Open for the first time since 2000, when he went on to a semifinal finish. In addition to a first-round loss last year to No. 21 seed Gaston Gaudio 62 63 06 75, Martin lost in the second round in 2001 to Tommy Robredo 63 75 36 63.

• Martin has a very healthy record against Spaniards. He has played against the nation on 48 occasions throughout his career and to date has posted a 36-12 win-loss record.

• This is Martin’s 14th consecutive US Open. Of the men left in the draw, only Andre Agassi has played more US Opens (he is playing his 18th consecutive event this year).

• Martin’s best performance here was a final finish in 1999. Having defeated Cedric Pioline 64 61 62 in the semifinals, he fell to Andre Agassi 64 67 67 63 62. Martin followed up this final showing with a semifinal place in 2000, falling to eventual champion Marat Safin 63 76 76. He had previously reached the semifinals in 1994, falling to eventual champion Andre Agassi 63 46 62 63.

• In addition to being runner-up here in 1999, Martin was runner-up at the 1994 Australian Open, losing in the final to Pete Sampras 76 64 64.

• Martin’s best result so far this year came at TMS Miami, where he reached the quarterfinals, defeating Andy Roddick 76 64 in the third round, going on to lose to Paradorn Srichaphan 63 67 75. Prior to the US Open, this quarterfinal Miami result was the last time he won three consecutive matches.

• During the pre-US Open summer hard court season, Martin fell in the first round at Washington to Scott Draper 63 64, and reached the round of 16 as a wild card at TMS Cincinnati, falling to Rainer Schuettler 75 36 63.

• Martin’s last singles title came at Sydney in 1999, although he did win the doubles title at TMS Cincinnati last year with James Blake.

• Martin is one of 12 players aged 30 or over who entered the 2003 US Open. At 33, he is in fact the second-oldest player to start in the men’s draw after Andre Agassi, who is just over two months older than Martin.

LOUIS ARMSTRONG STADIUM

NO. 6 LLEYTON HEWITT (AUS) v NO. 11 PARADORN SRICHAPHAN (THA)

Head-to-head: Hewitt leads 4-1
2001 TMS Indian Wells Hard (O) R32 Hewitt 63 63
2002 San Jose Hard (I) R16 Hewitt 67 64 76
2002 TMS Miami Hard (O) R64 Hewitt 76 75
2002 Tokyo Outdoor Hard (O) QF Srichaphan 64 63
2002 TMS Paris Carpet (I) SF Hewitt 63 36 63

This is the sixth meeting for Hewitt and Srichaphan, the Australian having won all but one of their meetings to date. Srichaphan’s lone victory was at Tokyo last year. On hard court, where they have had the majority of their matches, Hewitt leads 3-1.

Hewitt v Srichaphan

22 Age 24
6 Entry Ranking 11
19 Titles 4
55-19 Career Grand Slam Record 14-15
22-3 US Open Record 4-3
293-93 Career Record 131-91
178-55 Career Record – Hard 104-63
35-11 2003 Record 38-20
25-7 2003 Record – Hard 30-11
11-8 Career Five-Set Record 11-3
1 Comebacks from 0-2 down 1
74-63 Career Tie-break Record 48-49
8-8 2003 Tie-break Record 11-9

• Hewitt defeated Victor Hanescu 63 62 62 in the first round, Hyung-Taik Lee 57 62 62 64 in the second round, and advanced to the round of 16 by defeating Radek Stepanek 61 30 ret., the Czech conceding the match after suffering spasms in the lower back.

• This is the fourth straight year that Hewitt has reached the US Open round of 16. His earliest exit here was on his debut in 1999, when he lost in the third round to Andrei Medvedev 36 63 36 64 63.

• Hewitt is today attempting to record his best result in a Grand Slam tournament in 2003. Just by reaching the quarterfinals, he would have performed better than at any of the other three majors this season.

Hewitt’s 2003 Grand Slam record
Event Finish Score
Australian Open R16 Lost to No. 18 Younes El Aynaoui 67 76 76 64
Roland Garros 3rd rd Lost to No. 28 Tommy Robredo 46 16 63 62 63
Wimbledon 1st rd Lost to (Q) Ivo Karlovic 16 76 63 64
US Open ??? Plays No. 11 Paradorn Srichaphan in R16

• Hewitt lost in the first round at 2003 Wimbledon, where he was upset by qualifier Ivo Karlovic as described above, becoming the first defending Wimbledon champion to lose in the first round there in the Open Era, and only the second in history.

• This is the first time that Hewitt has not been seeded No. 1 at a Grand Slam event since the 2001 US Open (he was No. 4 seed here when he won). Hewitt came into the 2003 US Open with an Entry Ranking of No. 6, which he first held on 11 August. This is his lowest ranking for nearly two years, since 18 June 2001.

• This is Hewitt’s fifth US Open. Last year he reached the semifinals, falling to No. 6 seed Andre Agassi 64 76 67 62.

• Hewitt won the tournament in 2001 for his first Grand Slam title, defeating Pete Sampras in the final 76 61 61 to become the second-youngest US Open men’s champion of the Open Era. He and two-time winner Andre Agassi are the only former US Open champions to play in this year’s draw. Both play their round of 16 matches today.

• Hewitt has won two titles so far in 2003, both on hard court. At Scottsdale he defeated countryman Mark Philippoussis 64 64 in the final, and the following week at TMS Indian Wells he defeated Gustavo Kuerten 61 61 in the final. He was also runner-up in Los Angeles, having held three match points against Wayne Ferreira in the final before falling 63 46 75.

• Hewitt has won 19 titles overall and 13 of these victories were on hard court. He is third among active players for titles won on the surface.
Hard court title leaders (active)
Player Hard Court Titles Last Hard Court Title
Andre Agassi 44 2003 TMS Miami
Thomas Enqvist 13 2002 Marseille*
Lleyton Hewitt 13 2003 TMS Indian Wells
Wayne Ferreira 11 2003 Los Angeles
Yevgeny Kafelnikov 9 2002 Tashkent
Tim Henman 9 2003 Washington
Marcelo Rios 7 2001 Hong Kong
Mark Philippoussis 7 2001 Memphis*
* played on indoor hard court

• Hewitt has led the Australian Davis Cup team to the Davis Cup semifinals this year, playing in Australia’s first round defeat of Great Britain, and in the defeat of Sweden in the quarterfinals. He is undefeated in Davis Cup play this year, with a 2-0 win-loss record in singles, and 1-0 in doubles. Australia faces Switzerland at home in Melbourne in September’s semifinals.

• Srichaphan ended lucky loser Fernando Verdasco’s run 63 64 63 in the third round to set up his first appearance in the US Open round of 16. Srichaphan also reached the third round here for the first time this year. Srichaphan defeated Dominik Hrbaty 64 64 63 in the second round and before that, Cyril Saulnier 26 62 63 76 in the first round.

• Srichaphan is now on an eight-match winning streak, having won his second title of 2003 at Long Island just over a week ago. He defended the title he won there last year, defeating James Blake 62 64 in the final.

• The last player to win back-to-back Long Island and US Open titles was Patrick Rafter in 1998.

• Srichaphan is bidding to reach the quarterfinals at a Grand Slam event for the first time. He has reached the round of 16 at a major once before: at this year’s Wimbledon, as No. 12 seed, he defeated Rafael Nadal 64 64 62 in the third round before falling to eventual semifinalist Andy Roddick 64 36 63 62.

• Srichaphan is the fourth different Asian man to reach the round of 16 at the US Open in the Open Era. He is bidding to become just the third to advance to the quarterfinals here. No Asian man has gone further than the quarterfinals at any Grand Slam tournament in the Open Era.

Asian men in US Open round of 16
Year Player Round of 16 result Eventual finish
1973 Vijay Amritraj (IND) Defeated Allan Stone 62 62 62 QFs
1974 Vijay Amritraj (IND) Defeated Marty Riessen 63 63 64 QFs
1981 Ramesh Krishnan (IND) Defeated Gene Mayer 46 16 76 75 ret. QFs
1987 Ramesh Krishnan (IND) Defeated Andrei Chesnokov 64 61 62 QFs
2000 Hyung-Taik Lee (KOR) Lost to Pete Sampras 76 62 64 --
2003 Paradorn Srichaphan (THA) v Lleyton Hewitt ???

• Srichaphan is the only Thai man ever to have competed at a Grand Slam event. Only one other Thai player, Danai Udomchoke, has ever contested a tour-level event outside Thailand.

• This is Srichaphan’s 15th career meeting with an Australian, and he has a win-loss record of 8-6 against the nation. He has faced an Aussie in Grand Slam play only once before, and lost, falling to Mark Philippoussis 36 61 16 75 63 in the second round at this year’s Australian Open. (This was also the last time Srichaphan lost to an Australian in any event, having since had two victories.)

• This is Srichaphan’s fourth US Open. His best result here, prior to now, was a second round finish in 2002. Then, he defeated wild card Prakash Amritraj 61 63 60 in the first round for his first win at the US Open, falling to No. 33 seed Greg Rusedski in the second round 36 76 76 67 64.

• Srichaphan has posted some strong results all year on hard court. In addition to his Long Island title as described above, he began the year by winning the title in Chennai, defeating Karol Kucera 63 61 in the final. Srichaphan went on to reach the semifinals at TMS Miami, falling to Carlos Moya 64 62.

• During the pre-US Open summer hard court season, Srichaphan reached the final at Indianapolis, falling to Andy Roddick 76 64, the quarterfinals at Washington falling to Tim Henman 76 75, and the round of 16 at TMS Montreal falling to Max Mirnyi 63 62, before winning at Long Island.

• Despite this string of good performances on hard court, Srichaphan has also suffered some early defeats during the year on the surface, falling in the first rounds at San Jose (indoors), Scottsdale, TMS Indian Wells and TMS Cincinnati.

• In April 2003 Srichaphan reached No. 10 on the ATP Entry Ranking, becoming the first Asian man to enter the world top ten since rankings were introduced in August 1973. On 12 May he reached No. 9, a career-high.

• Srichaphan has led Thailand’s Davis Cup team since 1998, boasting a 22-4 win-loss record in singles. Thailand reached the World Group Play-offs for the first time in 2002, losing 3-2 to Great Britain in Birmingham. Thailand will also contest the 2003 World Group Play-offs, hosting the Czech Republic in Bangkok on 19-21 September.


GRANDSTAND

NO. 5 GUILLERMO CORIA (ARG) v JONAS BJORKMAN (SWE)

Head-to-head: first meeting

Coria v Bjorkman

21 Age 31
5 Entry Ranking 44
5 Titles 5
17-9 Career Grand Slam Record 67-39
5-1 US Open Record 25-10
104-48 Career Record 331-256
31-18 Career Record – Hard 199-147
53-13 2003 Record 22-15
15-7 2003 Record – Hard 8-7
1-1 Career Five-Set Record 21-11
0 Comebacks from 0-2 down 1
24-20 Career Tie-break Record 95-92
7-6 2003 Tie-break Record 7-6

• Coria has had a relatively easy ride into the 2003 US Open round of 16, having won in straight sets in his first three matches. He is one of only two men to reach the round of 16 with three straight sets victories (the other being Andre Agassi).

• He defeated countryman Mariano Puerta in the first round 64 63 61, Bohdan Ulihrach 62 61 64 in the second round and Gregory Carraz 75 61 75 in the third round. Impressively, he has also yet to drop serve in the tournament.

• By reaching the round of 16, Coria has now posted his best US Open result to date. He debuted here last year, progressing to the third round before falling to Arnaud Clement 26 62 75 76.

• This is only the third time Coria has played against a Swede. He currently holds a 2-1 advantage over the nation with his most recent victory coming at 2003 Kitzbuhel, where he defeated Andreas Vinciguerra 64 63 in the second round (he had a bye in the first round).

• The victory over Vinciguerra was Coria’s sixth win in a 15-match winning streak that brought him consecutive titles at Stuttgart, Kitzbuhel and Sopot. This is the joint-longest winning streak of the year so far, held with Roger Federer and Andy Roddick, whose streak is still alive, having won his 15th consecutive match in the third round here.

• By winning Stuttgart, Kitzbuhel and Sopot, Coria also became the first player in seven years to win three ATP titles in three consecutive weeks (matching a feat last achieved by Thomas Muster in 1996).

• Coria has played two hard court events in the run-up to the US Open. He lost in the first round at TMS Montreal to Feliciano Lopez, but reached the quarterfinals at TMS Cincinnati, losing to Max Mirnyi 62 75.

• 2003 has been Coria’s most successful year to date. So far, he has claimed four tour titles (at TMS Hamburg, Stuttgart, Kitzbuhel and Sopot), reached two finals (at Buenos Aires and TMS Monte Carlo) and progressed to the semifinals at Roland Garros (his best Grand Slam performance to date).

• Although all of Coria’s 2003 highlights came on clay, he has found a degree of success on hard court in 2003. As well as the quarterfinal appearance at TMS Cincinnati described above, he reached the rounds of 16 at the Australian Open, TMS Indian Wells and TMS Miami, as well as the quarterfinals at Auckland, early in the year. He currently has a 15-7 win-loss record on hard courts this year.

• Having claimed his fifth tour title at 2003 Sopot, Coria reached a career high ranking of No. 5 on 11 August and has carried this ranking into the 2003 US Open.

• Coria could make his Davis Cup debut for Argentina in the World Group semifinals away to Spain in September.

• Compared to his Argentine opponent, Bjorkman has had a much tougher time progressing to the round of 16, having played two five set matches in the second and third rounds. So far this tournament, Bjorkman has been on court for 9 hours 27 minutes; Coria, however, has been on court for four hours less at 5 hours 27 minutes.

• After defeating Filippo Volandri 61 64 60 in the first round, Bjorkman overcame qualifier Ramon Delgado 46 64 64 36 63 in the second round and Karol Kucera 64 46 67 64 64 in the third round. This is the longest match of the tournament so far.

• In Bjorkman’s third round encounter against Kucera, the match was suspended due to rain at 64 46 67 64 54, with Bjorkman serving for the match. At advantage Bjorkman (match point), umpire Carlos Ramos suspended play mid-point because of dangerous playing conditions. Returning after a three hour rain break, just one point was played, as Bjorkman won the match point to claim victory in 4 hours 38 minutes.

• By winning his first three matches here, Bjorkman has set up his first US Open round of 16 appearance since 1998 (when he fell in the quarterfinals to eventual champion Patrick Rafter 62 63 75).

• Bjorkman has a good record against Argentines, with a current 7-4 advantage over the nation. He last played against an Argentine at 2003 Bastad, where he defeated Mariano Puerta 76 74 in the first round.

• This is Bjorkman’s 11th consecutive US Open, having made his debut here in 1993. Of his 10 previous Flushing Meadows appearances, his best result was a semifinal finish in 1997. Then, he defeated Petr Korda 76 62 10 ret. in the quarterfinals, before falling to eventual runner-up Greg Rusedski 61 36 36 63 75.

• In addition to his 1997 semifinal showing, Bjorkman reached the quarterfinals here in 1994 (falling to Michael Stich 64 64 67 64) and 1998 (as described above). In last year’s event, he fell to Marcelo Rios 16 62 64 61 in the first round.

• From the 1993 US Open to the 2002 US Open, Bjorkman played 37 consecutive Grand Slam events. The only event he has missed since his Slam debut at the 1993 US Open was the 2003 Australian Open (his wife gave birth to son Max on 15 January). He returned to Grand Slam action at Roland Garros and is now playing his 40th Slam event.

• Bjorkman only played one summer hard court tournament in preparation for the US Open. He elected to play at Long Island two weeks ago, but fell in the opening round to eventual finalist James Blake 61 76.

• Bjorkman’s highlights this year have been a final appearance at Marseille, a semifinal showing at Nottingham and a quarterfinal finish at Wimbledon. He also teamed with Todd Woodbridge to win his second consecutive Wimbledon doubles title, defeating Max Mirnyi and Mahesh Bhupathi 36 63 76 63 in the final.
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US OPEN MEN’S REVIEW
Day Seven – 31 August 2003

Chance for top eight seeds to all go through
If Roger Federer beats James Blake on Sunday night, all of the top eight seeds will have made it through to the round of 16 at the 2003 US Open. This has only happened twice here before in the Open Era, in 1968 and 1981.

There have also been four additional instances of all top eight seeds reaching the round of 16 at the other Grand Slam events, three times at Roland Garros (1969, 1976 and 1982), and once at the Australian Open, in 1970 (although it was a 64-draw in Australia before 1982). It has never happened at Wimbledon. If it happens here this year, it will therefore be the seventh time in the Open Era that the top eight seeds have reached the round of 16, and the first time since 1982.

Should Federer lose to Blake, it will be the 23rd instance of seven of the top eight seeds having reached the round of 16 in Grand Slam play. Three of the previous 22 occurrences were here at the US Open (1979, 1985 and 1987).

Looking ahead to the quarterfinals, there has never been a Grand Slam event in the Open Era where all eight quarterfinal berths have been filled by the top eight seeds. There have been four instances of seven of the top eight seeds advancing to the last eight, at Roland Garros in 1976, 1983, and 1984, and at Wimbledon in 1969. Here at the US Open, six of the top eight seeds have reached the quarterfinals three times, in 1968, 1985 and 1987.

Agassi makes it six in a row against Kafelnikov…
No. 1 seed Andre Agassi claimed his sixth consecutive win over Yevgeny Kafelnikov on Sunday with a 63 76 64 victory in their rain-delayed third round match. This was the pair’s 12th meeting overall, and Agassi now leads the series 8-4. Out of five encounters at Grand Slam level, Kafelnikov has only won once, in the quarterfinals at 1995 Roland Garros.

…and edges closer to his 200th Grand Slam match win
Agassi’s straight-sets defeat of Kafelnikov in the third round marked the 199th Grand Slam match victory of his career. He currently stands in fourth place for the most Grand Slam wins in the Open Era, but if he were to go on to win the 2003 US Open, he would equal Sampras in third place.

Top Open Era Grand Slam Performances

Overall US Open
Jimmy Connors 233-49 98-17
Ivan Lendl 222-49 73-13
Pete Sampras 203-38 71-9
Andre Agassi 199-44 65-15

Countryman Todd Martin will also reach a new milestone in his 13-year career if he wins his round of 16 match. A defeat of No. 3 seed Juan Carlos Ferrero would secure his 100th career Grand Slam match win.


Country Countdown
Of the 32 different nations represented at the start of the tournament, at least ten have a presence in this year’s round of 16, possibly 11 if Switzerland’s Roger Federer wins against James Blake in Sunday’s night match. At time of printing the nations through are: Argentina, Australia, Belgium or Russia, Germany, Morocco, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Thailand and USA.

The USA currently heads the country count with four players through to the round of 16 (Andre Agassi, Taylor Dent, Todd Martin and Andy Roddick). Should Blake win his match against Federer, it will be the first time in eight years that there have been at least five Americans in the round of 16 at Flushing Meadows. In the 1995 event, eight American men played in the round of 16, five of whom progressed to the quarterfinals.

Roddick’s winning streak equals season-best
With a 61 63 63 third round win over Flavio Saretta, No. 4 seed Andy Roddick improved his winning streak to 15 consecutive match victories (following back-to-back titles at TMS Montreal and TMS Cincinnati coming into the US Open). If he wins one more match here, Roddick will establish a new longest winning streak for 2003. For now at least, he shares the season-best with Roger Federer and Guillermo Coria.

Champions Race update
Nine of the top ten players in the ATP Champions Race remain in the round of 16 at this year’s US Open. The top seven finishers in the ATP Champions Race qualify for a place at this year's Tennis Masters Cup in Houston. The eighth place goes to a Grand Slam champion in 2003 who finishes between 8th and 20th in the ATP Champions Race. If no player fits this classification, the eighth place goes to the player finishing eighth in the ATP Champions Race.

Lleyton Hewitt, the 2001 US Open champion, has improved from 13th to 10th place by reaching the round of 16.
ATP Champions Race at 31 August

Pos. Player Points
1. Andy Roddick 637
2. Roger Federer 614 (629 if he reaches round of 16)
3. Juan Carlos Ferrero 604
4. Guillermo Coria 569
5. Andre Agassi 545
6. Rainer Schuettler 477
7. Carlos Moya 398
8. David Nalbandian 298
9. Mark Philippoussis 276
10. Lleyton Hewitt 270
11. Sebastien Grosjean 255
Paradorn Srichaphan 255
13. Martin Verkerk 250
14. Tommy Robredo 243
15. Felix Mantilla 237
16. Gustavo Kuerten 236
Sjeng Schalken 236
18. Agustin Calleri 231
19. Younes El Aynaoui 230
20. Jiri Novak 226

(Players in bold still in the US Open before play on Monday 1 September)

Note: Add 20 points to the fourth-round points total for reaching the quarterfinals
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2003 US OPEN
DAY SEVEN MEN’S NOTES
Sunday 31 August 2003
Third Round Bottom Half


Show court matches

ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM: No. 4 Andy Roddick (USA) v Flavio Saretta (BRA)
No. 2 Roger Federer (SUI) v James Blake (USA)

REMAINDER OF MATCHES NOT ASSIGNED A COURT AT TIME OF PRINTING:

No. 7 Carlos Moya (ESP) v Nicolas Massu (CHI)
No. 8 Rainer Schuettler (GER) v Alberto Martin (ESP)
No. 10 Jiri Novak (CZE) v No. 22 Younes El Aynaoui (MAR)
No. 12 Sjeng Schalken (NED) v (Q) Ivo Karlovic (CRO)
No. 13 David Nalbandian (ARG) v No. 20 Mark Philippoussis (AUS)
(Q) Dmitry Tursunov (RUS) v Xavier Malisse (BEL)
On court today…

• Andy Roddick, currently on a 14-match winning streak, looks to extend his impressive run of form as he takes on Flavio Saretta, the only Brazilian left in the draw.

• Roger Federer, one of six Grand Slam champions who reached the third round here, faces local favourite James Blake, one of six American men who reached the third round.

• David Nalbandian and Mark Philippoussis meet in a clash of the runners-up from the last two Wimbledon Championships, Philippoussis having reached the final there this year, and Nalbandian last year.

• Last year’s semifinalist Sjeng Schalken faces the tallest man in the draw, 6’10’’ qualifier Ivo Karlovic.

• No. 7 seed Carlos Moya takes on Chile’s Nicolas Massu, who bids to maintain his record of improving his US Open results each year he has played.

• Australian Open finalist and No. 8 seed Rainer Schuettler against Spain’s Alberto Martin. Schuettler looks to reach the round of 16 or better for a fourth consecutive major, while Martin vies for his first ever Grand Slam tournament round of 16.


NO. 4 ANDY RODDICK (USA) v FLAVIO SARETTA (BRA)

Head-to-head: first meeting

Roddick v Saretta

21 Age 23
4 Entry Ranking 49
10 Titles 0
27-11 Career Grand Slam Record 10-7
10-3 US Open Record 2-1
159-56 Career Record 41-36
97-33 Career Record – Hard 13-13
57-13 2003 Record 23-17
36-7 2003 Record – Hard 8-5
3-2 Career Five-Set Record 4-2
1 Comebacks from 0-2 down 0
70-40 Career Tie-break Record 12-24
28-12 2003 Tie-break Record 9-11


• Roddick defeated Tim Henman, the highest ranked non-seed in the draw, in the first round 63 76 63. This win avenged his loss to the Briton in the semifinals at Washington, his only loss on the summer hard court circuit.

• In the second round, Roddick defeated Ivan Ljubicic 63 67 63 76, turning 21 during the match. It spanned two days, starting at 9.01pm on 29 August and finishing at 12.07am on 30 August (Roddick’s birthday).

• This is Roddick’s fourth US Open. For the past two years he has reached the quarterfinals here, and each time has been stopped by the eventual champion.

• At the 2001 US Open, Roddick advanced to his first Grand Slam quarterfinal by defeating Tommy Robredo 62 62 64 in the round of 16, then lost to eventual champion Lleyton Hewitt 67 63 64 36 64. In 2002, Roddick defeated Juan Ignacio Chela 57 64 64 64 in the round of 16, then lost in the quarters to eventual champion Pete Sampras 63 62 64.

• Until the start of 2003, Roddick’s best Grand Slam performances had all come at Flushing Meadows. However this year he has advanced to semifinals at the Australian Open (losing to Rainer Schuettler 75 26 63 63) and at Wimbledon (losing to eventual champion Roger Federer 76 63 63).

• Roddick has now compiled a 14-match winning streak, having won back-to-back Masters Series titles at TMS Montreal and TMS Cincinnati (he did not play last week). He needs one more win to match the year’s best winning streak, 15, jointly held by Roger Federer and Guillermo Coria. In Montreal, Roddick defeated David Nalbandian 61 63 in the final; in Cincinnati, Roddick overcame good friend Mardy Fish 46 76 76, Fish having held two match points on Roddick’s serve at 4-5 in the third set.

• In his 14 straight match wins described above, Roddick has lost just four sets.

• Roddick has lost just one of 23 hard court matches played since the start of the summer hard court circuit (including the US Open so far), that loss being to Tim Henman in the semifinals at Washington, 16 63 76. Roddick won the title a week before that at Indianapolis, defeating Paradorn Srichaphan 76 64 in the final.

• Before the start of the US Open, Roddick had a tour-best 34 hard court match wins (and seven losses). But in the past 13 years, only one player has entered the US Open leading the tour in hard court match wins and gone on to win the tournament. Pete Sampras achieved this feat in 1993. On three other occasions, the tour’s hard court wins leader entering the US Open has been runner-up. [More details can be found on pages 10-11 of the Preview.]

• The last man to turn multiple titles during the summer hard court season into complete US Open success was Patrick Rafter, who in 1998 won at Toronto, Cincinnati and Long Island then successfully defended his US Open crown. On the other hand, in the last 15 years, there have been four instances of a player winning multiple summer hard court tournaments only to lose in the first round of the US Open. [More details on pages 11-12 of the Preview.]

• Having also won titles at St Polten (clay) and at Queen’s (grass) earlier in the season, Roddick jointly leads the tour for titles won so far in 2003. He and Roger Federer both have five.

• Saretta defeated No. 32 seed Vince Spadea 63 61 57 76 in the first round and Nicolas Lapentti 62 64 60 in the second round to set up his first US Open third round appearance.

• Saretta is playing his second US Open having made his debut here last year. In 2002, he lost in the opening round to Kenneth Carlsen in five close sets 76 46 64 57 76.

• Following Gustavo Kuerten’s first round exit to qualifier Dmitry Tursunov, Saretta is the only Brazilian left in the draw.

• Saretta has now had two complete years of Grand Slam play, having competed in every Slam event since the 2002 Australian Open. His best Grand Slam result to date has been a round of 16 appearance at this year’s Roland Garros, where he fell to Andre Agassi 62 61 75.

• In addition to his round of 16 berth at Roland Garros, Saretta progressed to the third round at 2003 Wimbledon, defeating Agustin Calleri in an epic second round match 64 67 62 67 108, before falling to Feliciano Lopez 64 64 64. He lost in the first round at the Australian Open to Roger Federer 76 75 63.

• Saretta played two hard court events in the run-up to this year’s US Open. He defeated David Sanchez 67 61 62 and Fabrice Santoro 75 63 before falling to Mariano Zabaleta 67 62 64 at TMS Cincinnati, and reached the second round at Long Island, losing to Nicolas Kiefer 63 61.

• Following his third round appearance at TMS Cincinnati, Zabaleta reached a career high ranking of No. 48 on 18 August 2003.


NO. 2 ROGER FEDERER (SUI) v JAMES BLAKE (USA)

Head-to-head: first meeting

Federer v Blake

22 Age 23
2 Entry Ranking 35
9 Titles 1
38-16 Career Grand Slam Record 13-9
10-3 US Open Record 5-3
222-108 Career Record 85-66
116-53 Career Record – Hard 59-40
60-12 2003 Record 34-22
31-8 2003 Record – Hard 27-12
6-6 Career Five-Set Record 0-4
2 Comebacks from 0-2 down 0
87-69 Career Tie-break Record 30-24
17-12 2003 Tie-break Record 17-9

• Federer defeated Jose Acasuso 57 63 63 20 ret. in the first round, Acasuso suffering from an upper right hamstring strain, and then Jean-Rene Lisnard 61 62 60 in the second round, which was the easiest second round victory in the men’s draw.

• In this, his fourth straight US Open, Federer is bidding to match his best result to date, the round of 16. Federer reached that stage last year, falling to Max Mirnyi 63 76 64, and also reached the round of 16 in 2001, losing to Andre Agassi 61 62 64.

• Federer has a strong win-loss record against American opponents, standing at 20-7 coming into today’s match.

• As Wimbledon champion, Federer is attempting to become the first man to win Wimbledon and the US Open back-to-back since Pete Sampras in 1995. [More details can be found on pages 2-3 of the Preview.]

• Federer won his first major at Wimbledon this year by defeating Andy Roddick 76 63 63 in the semifinals and Mark Philippoussis 76 62 76 in the final, becoming the first Swiss man ever to win a Grand Slam title. He had previously never got beyond the quarterfinals of any Grand Slam event.

• Federer has played just two pre-US Open hard court events, advancing to the semifinals at TMS Montreal before losing to Andy Roddick 64 36 76. He lost to David Nalbandian 76 76 in the second round at TMS Cincinnati.

• With Guillermo Coria, Federer owns the joint-longest winning streak of the season, having 15 consecutive victories through his titles at Halle, Wimbledon, and his runner-up finish on clay at Gstaad (where he lost in the final to Jiri Novak 57 63 63 16 63). After his second round win over Ivan Ljubicic, Andy Roddick is now on a 14-match winning streak.

• Federer has won a total of five titles in 2003, winning at Marseille (indoor hard court), Dubai (outdoor hard court) and Munich (clay) as well as at Halle and Wimbledon. This ties Andy Roddick for the tour record for the season.

• Federer is one of three men who own only one Grand Slam title who have advanced to the third round. The others are both one-time Roland Garros champions: 1998 winner Carlos Moya, and 2003 winner Juan Carlos Ferrero.

• Blake defeated No. 27 seed Mariano Zabaleta 76 63 62 in his first round match on Wednesday evening, and followed this up with a win over Sargis Sargsian 63 64 46 76 in the second round.

• Blake is making his fourth appearance at Flushing Meadows. Having debuted in 1999 as a wildcard, he missed the 2000 event but returned in 2001 (again as a wildcard) and 2002. Last year was the first time he gained direct acceptance to the main draw.

• Blake is now attempting to record his best ever US Open result, having equalled his previous best by reaching the third round. Last year he also reached the third round, defeating Brian Vahaly 67 63 63 76 and Nikolay Davydenko 63 46 61 63 en route to a 67 63 64 36 63 loss to No. 1 seed and eventual semifinalist Lleyton Hewitt.

• Today’s match will be Blake’s first ever at tour level against a Swiss opponent.

• Blake played four summer hard court events in preparation for the 2003 US Open. His best result came a week ago at Long Island, where he defeated Younes El Aynaoui 63 61 in the semifinals before falling to Paradorn Srichaphan 62 64 in the final.

• Blake’s Long Island final appearance is his best result so far this season. He has also secured one semifinal (San Jose) and four quarterfinal spots (Scottsdale, TMS Indian Wells, Houston and Washington) in 2003.

• Blake has now reached a total of four finals, winning his lone title to date at Washington in 2002 (where he defeated Paradorn Srichaphan 16 76 64 in the final).

• Blake has yet to win a five-set match in four played. Two of those five-set losses came at the US Open, and both were to Lleyton Hewitt. In 2002 he lost in the third round to Hewitt 67 63 64 36 63 as stated above, and before that, in 2001, he was defeated by Hewitt in the second round 64 36 26 63 60.

NO. 7 CARLOS MOYA (ESP) v NICOLAS MASSU (CHI)

Head-to-head: first meeting

Moya v Massu

27 Age 23
7 Entry Ranking 42
14 Titles 2
51-27 Career Grand Slam Record 10-12
15-7 US Open Record 5-3
370-202 Career Record 105-91
119-81 Career Record – Hard 42-39
46-16 2003 Record 21-13
11-6 2003 Record – Hard 4-3
12-14 Career Five-Set Record 1-2
4 Comebacks from 0-2 down 0
137-111 Career Tie-break Record 39-38
16-16 2003 Tie-break Record 5-5

• Moya celebrated his 27th birthday on Wednesday by winning his first round match against Scott Draper 46 64 75 76. He followed that up by defeating South African qualifier Wesley Moodie in the second round 62 76 63.

• Moya has a poor record against Chileans. He has won only three of nine clashes with Chilean opponents, losing three of the last four. However Moya did win his most recent match with a Chilean, defeating Fernando Gonzalez 26 76 76 in the second round at TMS Madrid last year.

• Moya is playing his eighth consecutive US Open, having debuted in 1996. As No. 9 seed, Moya suffered a second round exit in last year’s event, losing to Jan-Michael Gambill 63 63 61.

• Moya’s best US Open result came five years ago when he reached the semifinals of the 1998 event. Surviving two five-set matches in the second and third rounds (against Michael Chang and Jan-Michael Gambill respectively), he then defeated Magnus Norman 64 63 63 in the quarterfinals before falling to Mark Philippoussis 61 64 57 64 in the semifinals.

• Moya won the title at 1998 Roland Garros, defeating countryman Alex Corretja 63 75 63 in the final. He reached his first Grand Slam final at the 1997 Australian Open, losing to Pete Sampras 62 63 63.

• Moya had disappointing results on the pre-US Open summer hard court circuit, losing in the first round at both TMS Montreal (falling to Arnaud Clement 76 46 63) and at TMS Cincinnati (losing to Fabrice Santoro 36 63 64). In fact, Moya was on a three-match losing streak before arriving at the 2003 US Open, having also lost on clay in the first round at Sopot (to Albert Portas 76 67 75) the week before TMS Montreal.

• Moya performed well on hard court earlier in the season, reaching the final of 128-draw TMS Miami in March. Defeating Robby Ginepri 76 36 76 in the quarterfinals and Paradorn Srichaphan 64 62 in the semifinals, he lost in the final to Andre Agassi 63 63.

• Moya has won three titles this year, all on clay. He claimed victories at Buenos Aires (defeating Guillermo Coria 63 46 64), Barcelona (defeating Marat Safin 57 62 62 30 ret.) and Umag (defeating Filippo Volandri 64 36 75).

• Massu, one of two Chileans to reach the third round (the other being No. 15 seed Fernando Gonzalez), defeated No. 30 seed Gaston Gaudio in the first round 63 63 62, before defeating qualifier Thomas Enqvist 63 62 75 in the second round.

• Massu is one of only six men to have reached the third round this year without dropping a set. The others were No. 1 seed Andre Agassi, No. 5 seed Guillermo Coria, No. 20 seed Mark Philippoussis, No. 22 Younes El Aynaoui, Karol Kucera and.

• Massu is today bidding to maintain his record of improving his results here each year he has played. This is his fourth US Open.

• On his US Open debut in 2000, Massu lost in the first round to countryman Marcelo Rios 63 75 16 76. At the 2001 US Open, he lost in the second round to No. 2 seed Andre Agassi 67 64 62 76. Last year here, he reached the third round before retiring against Gustavo Kuerten trailing 16 45 due to a right hamstring and groin injury. Massu therefore needs to win today to better last year’s performance.

• Massu played just one pre-US Open summer hard court event, losing in the first round at TMS Montreal as a lucky loser to Max Mirnyi 64 76. However he had an impressive run on the post-Wimbledon clay court circuit, reaching finals in consecutive weeks at Amersfoort and Kitzbuhel.

• Massu assembled a 10-match winning streak through winning his first title of the season at Amersfoort (defeating local favourite Raemon Sluiter 64 76 62 in the final) and finishing runner-up at Kitzbuhel (losing in the final to Guillermo Coria 61 64 62).

• This is Massu’s eighth hard court match of the year. He has doubled his year’s tally of match wins on the surface with his victories in the first two rounds here. He had won two hard court matches before he arrived here, both victories coming at TMS Miami, where he defeated Kenneth Carlsen, then Gaston Gaudio in the second round before losing in the third round to Albert Costa 76 62.

NO. 8 RAINER SCHUETTLER (GER) v ALBERTO MARTIN (ESP)

Head-to-head: Martin leads 2-0
2002 Stuttgart Outdoor Clay (O) R32 Martin 67 62 63
2003 TMS Monte Carlo Clay (O) R32 Martin 62 64

This is the pair’s third match-up, with Martin leading Schuettler 2-0, but these two wins both came on clay.

Schuettler v Martin

27 Ag 25
8 Entry Ranking 63
2 Titles 3
29-20 Career Grand Slam Record 14-21
5-4 US Open Record 3-4
185-159 Career Record 129-145
115-75 Career Record – Hard 36-51
48-22 2003 Record 15-21
28-9 2003 Record – Hard 8-6
3-1 Career Five-Set Record 2-2
0 Comebacks from 0-2 down 0
60-58 Career Tie-break Record 43-38
13-5 2003 Tie-break Record 4-9

• Schuettler defeated Wayne Arthurs 46 63 62 64 in the first round and countryman Nicolas Kiefer 61 75 26 64 in the second round.

• This is Schuettler’s fifth US Open. He was forced to retire in the first round here last year due to a left leg strain, qualifier Jean-Rene Lisnard winning the match 36 67 64 40 ret.

• The US Open is the only Grand Slam tournament where Schuettler has yet to reach the round of 16. His best result to date is a third round finish in 2000, where he defeated countryman Tommy Haas 76 62 64 in the second round before falling to qualifier Hyung-Taik Lee 62 36 64 64.

• Should he win his third round match against Martin, Schuettler will not only reach the US Open round of 16 for the first time, but will have reached this stage or better at all four Grand Slam events in 2003. He was runner-up at the Australian Open (see below), lost to Martin Verkerk 63 63 75 in the round of 16 at Roland Garros, and fell to Sjeng Schalken 75 64 75 in the round of 16 at Wimbledon.

• Schuettler has been impressive on hard courts all year. He had the best result of his career when he reached the final at the Australian Open where he defeated James Blake 63 64 16 63 in the round of 16, David Nalbandian 63 57 61 60 in the quarterfinals and Andy Roddick 75 26 63 63 in the semifinals, before falling to Andre Agassi 62 62 61. He had also previously reached the semifinals at Sydney, and went on to reach the semifinals at Indian Wells.

• In preparation for the 2003 US Open, Schuettler reached back-to-back semifinals at TMS Montreal and TMS Cincinnati. In Montreal, he defeated Andre Agassi 26 62 63 in the quarterfinals then lost to David Nalbandian 36 62 62; in Cincinnati, he defeated Robby Ginepri 62 63 in the quarters before losing to Mardy Fish 76 76.

• With his two wins here so far, Schuettler has a 10-2 win-loss record on the US summer hard court circuit.

• Martin defeated Olivier Mutis 60 63 61 in the first round and fellow Spaniard and No. 25 seed Albert Costa 63 63 36 62 in the second round.

• This is Martin’s fifth consecutive US Open, having debuted here in 1999.

• This third round appearance is Martin’s best US Open result to date. From 1999 to 2001, he fell in the opening round, winning here for the first time last year before posting a second round finish. He defeated Michel Kratochvil 57 64 63 76 before falling to Thomas Enqvist 61 76 60.

• Martin is bidding to reach the round of 16 for the first time at any Slam event. He has reached the third round of a Grand Slam on three other occasions. He progressed to the third round at 1999 Wimbledon (falling to Andre Agassi 62 60 26 63), at the 2002 Australian Open (falling to Marcelo Rios 64 63 76) and at this year’s Australian Open (falling to James Blake 63 46 62 62).

• Martin has a good record against Germans. He has played a total of 11 matches against the nation and has lost just three. Dating back to his round of 16 victory over Markus Hantschk (63 61) at 2000 Palermo, he is on a five-match winning streak against German players.

• Martin has only played one hard court event during the summer in preparation for the US Open. At TMS Montreal, he fell in the first round to Paradorn Srichaphan 60 76.

• In total, Martin had posted just six hard court wins this year ahead of the US Open. He had a third round appearance at the Australian Open (see above) and reached the quarterfinals at Adelaide (losing to Kristof Vliegen 63 64) and at Delray Beach (losing to Mardy Fish 63 63).

NO. 10 JIRI NOVAK (CZE) v NO. 22 YOUNES EL AYNAOUI (MAR)

Head-to-head: tied 1-1
1999 Hamburg Clay (O) R64 Novak 57 64 61
2002 Doha Hard (O) QF El Aynaoui 76 64

Novak v El Aynaoui

28 Age 31
10 Entry Ranking 21
5 Titles 5
40-29 Career Grand Slam Record 37-28
14-8 US Open Record 7-6
254-192 Career Record 248-199
117-83 Career Record – Hard 80-72
37-20 2003 Record 35-20
16-7 2003 Record – Hard 18-9
11-8 Career Five-Set Record 11-5
4 Comebacks from 0-2 down 2
75-95 Career Tie-break Record 116-97
11-9 2003 Tie-break Record 21-16

• Novak defeated Jan-Michael Gambill in the second round 64 64 64. This represented a significant turn-around from their three previous meetings, in which Novak had failed to win a set.

• Novak defeated Mario Ancic in the first round 36 63 57 62 62. This win extended his perfect record in five-set matches this year: he has now played four and won four (he also defeated Olivier Rochus in the second round at the Australian Open 76 76 46 46 63; Marc Lopez in the second round at Roland Garros 64 36 06 61 63; and Roger Federer in the final at Gstaad 57 63 63 16 63).

• Novak has faced Moroccan opponents on nine previous occasions. He has a 4-5 win-loss record, although interestingly he has always alternated a loss with a win. Novak’s last match against a Moroccan was a loss, as he fell to today’s opponent El Aynaoui at Doha in 2002.

• Novak is playing his ninth US Open. He is now bidding to equal his best showing at the event, a round of 16 finish here which he has achieved twice already, last year and in 1999.

• At the 2002 US Open, Novak benefited from two retirements, advancing to the second round when Richard Krajicek retired with a left heel injury and going on to the round of 16 when Marcelo Rios retired due to tendonitis in his right knee. Novak lost his round of 16 match to No. 1 seed Lleyton Hewitt, 64 62 64.

• Novak first reached the round of 16 here in 1999, losing to Slava Dosedel 64 75 57 75.

• Novak won his first title of the year on clay in Gstaad in July, the fifth of his career. He defeated Roger Federer 57 63 63 16 63 in the final, ending the Wimbledon champion’s 15-match winning streak. It was Novak’s first win in four finals, having won his last title at Gstaad two years previously.

• Novak played two hard court events coming into the US Open, his best showing being a round of 16 finish at TMS Montreal (losing to Rainer Schuettler 75 60). He performed better on the surface earlier in the season, reaching the final at Dubai in February, before losing on that occasion to Roger Federer 61 76.

• El Aynaoui defeated wild card Alex Kim 75 76 63 in the first round, and then 17-year-old Rafael Nadal 76 63 76 in the second.

• El Aynaoui has now played three tiebreaks here this year, winning all three, and is one of only six men to have reached the third round this year without dropping a set. The others were No. 1 seed Andre Agassi, No. 5 seed Guillermo Coria, No. 20 seed Mark Philippoussis, Karol Kucera and Nicolas Massu.

• El Aynaoui has won eight and lost eight of his 16 previous meetings with Czech opponents. However, Novak has won his last four meetings with Czechs, although the last was over a year ago in Bastad when he defeated Bohdan Ulihrach 63 63.

• El Aynaoui is playing his seventh US Open. In last year’s event, he secured his best performance here with a quarterfinal finish, defeating Wayne Ferreira 36 75 75 76 in the round of 16 before falling to No. 1 seed and eventual semifinalist Lleyton Hewitt 61 76 46 62.

• Prior to last year’s quarterfinal finish, El Aynaoui had a poor US Open record. He fell in the opening round in 1994 (his debut) and 1996, reached the second round in 1999, and posted two more first round losses in 2000 and 2001.

• El Aynaoui’s run-up to the 2003 US Open included three US hard court events – TMS Montreal, TMS Cincinnati and Long Island. He posted second round losses in Montreal (to Juan Carlos Ferrero 63 64) and Cincinnati (to Zabaleta 67 64 75) but won three consecutive matches at Long Island a week ago, falling to James Blake 63 61 in the semifinals.

• El Aynaoui has had a successful year. He reached the final at Casablanca (losing to Julien Boutter 62 26 61), the semifinals at Doha (losing to Stefan Koubek 76 76) and Long Island (losing to James Blake 63 61) and reached the quarterfinals at TMS Miami (losing to Andre Agassi 76 46 61).

• El Aynaoui was involved in an epic match at this year’s Australian Open. In his quarterfinal against Andy Roddick, he lost 46 76 46 64 2119 in exactly five hours, producing the longest fifth set (in number of games) in men’s singles in all-time Grand Slam history. In total number of games played (83) it was the joint-longest men’s singles match in a Grand Slam tournament since the introduction of the tiebreak (tying with Philippoussis v Schalken at 2000 Wimbledon).

NO. 12 SJENG SCHALKEN (NED) v (Q) IVO KARLOVIC (CRO)

Head-to-head: first meeting

Schalken v Karlovic

26 Age 24
12 Entry Ranking 109
7 Titles 0
39-33 Career Grand Slam Record 4-1
14-8 US Open Record 2-0
255-230 Career Record 9-8
127-114 Career Record – Hard 3-2
31-18 2003 Record 6-3
15-9 2003 Record – Hard 2-0
9-14 Career Five-Set Record 0-0
1 Comebacks from 0-2 down 0
89-95 Career Tie-break Record 8-6
8-5 2003 Tie-break Record 7-4



• Schalken progressed to the third round with a 62 63 62 win over Julien Boutter in the first round and a 46 26 62 62 60 victory over Lars Burgsmuller in the second round.

• By defeating Burgsmuller in the second round, Schalken claimed his first career win, coming back from two-sets-to-love down. It was his 23rd five-set match.

• This is Schalken’s ninth consecutive US Open, having made his debut here in 1995. His best result came last year when he reached his first Grand Slam semifinal. As No. 24 seed, he defeated Gustavo Kuerten 63 76 67 76 in the round of 16 and No. 28 seed Fernando Gonzalez 67 63 63 67 76 in the quarterfinals, before falling to eventual champion Pete Sampras 76 76 62.

• Schalken had mixed results coming into the US Open. He reached the semifinals at Indianapolis (losing to Andy Roddick 63 62), but in his next three tournaments he failed to progress beyond the second round. He fell in the second round at Los Angeles (to Nicolas Kiefer 64 64) and TMS Cincinnati (to James Blake 61 64), and succumbed to Mariano Zabaleta 61 61 in the first round at TMS Montreal.

• Schalken’s best result of the year came on grass at ‘s-Hertogenbosch where he won eighth career title, defeating Arnaud Clement 63 64 in the final.

• Schalken’s best Grand Slam performance of the year to date came at Wimbledon, where he progressed to the quarterfinals for a second consecutive year. Having defeated Victor Hanescu 62 64 76 in the third round and Rainer Schuettler 75 64 75 in the round of 16, he fell to eventual champion Roger Federer 63 64 64 in the quarterfinals. At this year’s Australian Open, he fell in the second round to Mario Ancic 63 16 67 64 64 and at Roland Garros in the third round to Fernando Gonzalez 76 63 31 ret (due to illness).

• Qualifier Karlovic defeated No. 21 seed Felix Mantilla 64 64 64 in the first round and Hicham Arazi 36 76 76 76 in the second round.

• In his first two matches here, Karlovic has served 54 aces in total (24 against Mantilla and 30 against Arazi). Martin Verkerk is the only player to have served more aces this tournament, having hit 59 before losing in the second round to Todd Martin.

• Karlovic was one of 28 US Open debutants to start in the tournament this year.

• This is Karlovic’s second Grand Slam event (not including Davis Cup), having made his Slam debut at 2003 Wimbledon. Prior to his Wimbledon appearance, he had attempted to qualify for ten majors without success, including three times at Flushing Meadows (2000-2002).

• This is only Karlovic’s seventh tour-level event (not including Davis Cup) and fourth of 2003. His best career performance at tour level was a third round showing at this year’s Wimbledon.

• At Wimbledon, Karlovic became only the second man in the history of the Championships to defeat a defending champion in the first round. Having defeated Lleyton Hewitt 16 76 63 64 in the first round and qualifier Paul Baccanello 64 76 57 62 in the second round, he succumbed to Max Mirnyi 76 36 63 76 in the third round.

• Karlovic has played mainly challenger events this year, and has reached four semifinals and won two titles. His two challenger titles (at Binghamton and Bronx, both in the USA) came in the two weeks prior to the US Open qualifying event. Including his three qualifying and two main draw wins so far here, Karlovic is currently on a 15-match winning streak. (NB: challenger tournaments and qualifying events are not counted in a player’s overall win-loss record.)

NO. 13 DAVID NALBANDIAN (ARG) v NO. 20 MARK PHILIPPOUSSIS (AUS)

Head-to-head: Philippoussis leads 1-0
2003 Scottsdale Hard (O) QF Philippoussis 06 63 64

Today’s match is also a clash between two of four men left in the draw whose best Grand Slam result is a runner-up finish; the others are Rainer Schuettler (2003 Australian Open) and Todd Martin (1994 Australian Open and 1999 US Open). [Martin’s third round match against Robby Ginepri had not been played at time of printing.]

Nalbandian v Philippoussis

21 Age 26
13 Entry Ranking 20
2 Titles 9
21-8 Career Grand Slam Record 61-28
4-2 US Open Record 16-6
87-52 Career Record 281-161
28-19 Career Record – Hard 168-90
34-17 2003 Record 30-14
17-7 2003 Record – Hard 19-9
6-1 Career Five-Set Record 14-6
0 Comebacks from 0-2 down 3
33-19 Career Tie-break Record 144-124
13-6 2003 Tie-break Record 13-10

• Nalbandian defeated Grand Slam debutant and qualifier Philip Kohlschreiber in the first round 64 76 63, before going on to defeat Jarkko Nieminen 57 63 61 46 76.

• Nalbandian’s second round win over Nieminen extended his strong win-loss record in five-set matches to 6-1. Nalbandian has now played one five-set match in each Grand Slam event this year, with a 3-1 win-loss record, as follows:
Nalbandian’s 2003 five-set matches
Grand Slam Opponent Round Result Eventual Finish
Australian Open Roger Federer Round of 16 Won 64 36 61 16 63 Quarterfinals
Roland Garros Nicholas Coutelot Second Lost 63 63 46 26 61 --
Wimbledon Karol Kucera Third Won 64 57 67 64 62 Round of 16
US Open Jarkko Nieminen Second Won 57 63 61 46 76 ???

• Nalbandian is playing his third successive US Open. Last year, as Wimbledon runner-up and No. 16 seed, he was upset in the first round by Sargis Sargsian 61 64 64.

• Nalbandian made a solid Grand Slam debut as a qualifier at the 2001 US Open, advancing to the third round by defeating No. 31 seed Nicolas Escude 46 63 46 63 75 in the second round, then losing to No. 7 Yevgeny Kafelnikov 36 64 62 62.

• Nalbandian has achieved success here before, winning the 1998 boys’ title, defeating Roger Federer 63 75 in the final.

• Nalbandian has won ten of 12 matches played on the summer hard court circuit, including his first and second round match here. He reached his first final of the year at TMS Montreal, defeating Rainer Schuettler 36 62 62 in the semifinals before losing to Andy Roddick 61 63. The following week, Nalbandian advanced to the quarterfinals at TMS Cincinnati, losing to eventual runner-up Mardy Fish 76 63.

• Apart from TMS Montreal, Nalbandian’s other stand-out hard court result of 2003 was at the Australian Open, where he advanced to the quarterfinals before losing to eventual champion Rainer Schuettler 63 57 61 60.

• Nalbandian also reached the semifinals on clay at TMS Hamburg (losing to Agustin Calleri 64 61), and advanced to the last 16 at this year’s Wimbledon (falling to Tim Henman 62 67 75 63).

• Philippoussis defeated Serbian qualifier Janko Tipsarevic 62 76 64 in the first round, before defeating Anthony Dupuis 62 63 64 in the second round.

• Philippoussis is one of only six men to have reached the third round this year without dropping a set. The others were No. 1 seed Andre Agassi, No. 5 seed Guillermo Coria, No. 22 seed Younes El Aynaoui, Karol Kucera and Nicolas Massu.

• Philippoussis has a strong record against Argentine opponents, boasting a career 10-2 win-loss record. In 2003, that record is 4-1 in Philippoussis’s favour, with the lone loss coming at TMS Hamburg to Guillermo Coria in the quarterfinals 62 60.

• This is Philippoussis’s seventh appearance at the US Open, having been runner-up in 1998.

• Last year Philippoussis retired in the first round here, trailing 67 46 63 53 against No. 24 Sjeng Schalken, after suffering a left knee injury as a result of jumping for an overhead.

• Although Philippoussis made his US Open debut here in 1995, he missed both 1999 and 2001 due to a left knee injury which has required surgery three times in his career. After the injury he sustained on the same knee at the 2002 US Open, Philippoussis was out for the remainder of the season.

• Philippoussis reached the US Open final in 1998, defeating Carlos Moya 61 64 57 64 in the semifinals before losing to compatriot Patrick Rafter 63 36 62 60. That was his best performance in a Grand Slam tournament until he reached the final at this year’s Wimbledon.

• At 2003 Wimbledon, Philippoussis defeated No. 2 seed Andre Agassi 63 26 67 63 64 in the round of 16, Alexander Popp 46 46 63 63 86 in the quarterfinals and No. 14 Sebastien Grosjean 76 63 63 in the semifinals to become the sixth unseeded finalist there in the Open Era. He lost in the final to No. 4 Roger Federer 76 62 76.

• In his round of 16 defeat of Agassi at Wimbledon, Philippoussis served 46 aces, equalling the Wimbledon record set by Goran Ivanisevic in the second round in 1997. This is three aces short of the all-time record, set when Richard Krajicek served 49 aces against Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the 1999 US Open quarterfinals (Krajicek lost 76 76 36 16 76).

• Phillipoussis played just two tournaments between Wimbledon and the US Open, reaching the semifinals at Los Angeles, where he lost to eventual champion Wayne Ferreira 64 75. He lost in the first round at TMS Cincinnati to eventual runner-up Mardy Fish 16 63 64.

• In addition to his runner-up finish at Wimbledon, Philippoussis was a finalist on hard court at Scottsdale in March, defeating today’s opponent Nalbandian in the quarterfinals 06 63 64, going on to lose to countryman Lleyton Hewitt in the final 64 64.

(Q) DMITRY TURSUNOV (RUS) v XAVIER MALISSE (BEL)

Head-to-head: first meeting

Tursunov v Malisse

20 Age 23
174 Entry Ranking 67
0 Titles 0
2-0 Career Grand Slam Record 26-14
2-0 US Open Record 10-4
5-3 Career Record 117-93
5-3 Career Record – Hard 60-52
2-2 2003 Record 17-20
2-2 2003 Record – Hard 10-11
2-0 Career Five-Set Record 6-3
0 Comebacks from 0-2 down 1
3-1 Career Tie-break Record 47-33
1-1 2003 Tie-break Record 8-10


• Qualifier Tursunov defeated No. 14 seed Gustavo Kuerten 57 62 62 46 76 in the first round and John Van Lottum 64 36 63 57 62 in the second round.

• Tursunov is one of two men in the tournament to have progressed to the third round with two five set wins (the other being Gregory Carraz). Prior to the US Open, Tursunov had never played a five-set match.

• Tursunov is making his Grand Slam tournament debut at this year’s US Open. Prior to here, he had attempted to qualify for a Grand Slam tournament on five previous occasions – failing to make the main draw on each attempt. In the 2001 US Open qualifying event, Tursunov lost in the second round to Byron Black 62 62.

• In last week’s qualifying event, Tursunov defeated David Prinosil 64 62 in the first round, Dennis Van Scheppingen 61 63 in the second round and Daniele Bracciali of Italy 64 64 in the final round.

• Tursunov played hard court challengers in the run-up to this year’s US Open, and had good results. He reached the final at Aptos, USA (losing to Jeff Salzenstein 57 75 64) and at Bronx, USA just over two weeks ago (losing to Ivo Karlovic 63 63). With his performance at the Bronx challenger through the qualifying event and the first two rounds here, Tursunov has now won nine of his last ten matches.

• This is only Tursunov’s ninth tour-level match and all his matches at this level have been on hard court. Before the 2003 US Open, his three previous tour-level victories on this surface all came indoors at Memphis in 2001, when as a qualifier he advanced to the quarterfinals before losing to Mark Philippoussis 63 62.

• Tursunov plays for Russia, but has lived in California for the past eight years and is applying for US citizenship.

• Malisse progressed to the third round at the US Open for the fourth time in his career following a 62 67 63 36 63 win over No. 19 seed Agustin Calleri in the second round and a 63 64 62 win over countryman Olivier Rochus in the first round.

• Malisse is playing his fifth straight US Open, having debuted in 1999 as a qualifier.

• Malisse had his best result here in 2001, reaching the round of 16 by defeating No. 9 seed Tim Henman 67 63 75 46 64 in the third round before falling to Mariano Zabaleta 64 76 75.

• Malisse has a good record against Russians, currently holding a 4-2 advantage over the nation. He last played against a Russian in the first round at 2003 Rotterdam, where he lost to Marat Safin 75 63.

• Malisse’s best Grand Slam result was a semifinal finish at 2002 Wimbledon, where as No. 27 seed he became the second Belgian in the Open Era to reach a Grand Slam semifinal and the first at Wimbledon (he lost to David Nalbandian 76 64 16 26 62).

• Malisse played four events on the summer hard court circuit and had his best result at Indianapolis, where he reached the quarterfinals before falling to Andy Roddick 64 61. He also scored an impressive win at TMS Cincinnati where he defeated Lleyton Hewitt 36 64 62 in the first round, before losing in the second round to Mardy Fish 75 67 61.

• In addition to Indianapolis, Malisse also reached the quarterfinals at Queen’s, losing to Andre Agassi 64 75. These are his best results of a rather disappointing season to date. In fact, since achieving his best Grand Slam result by reaching the semifinals at 2002 Wimbledon, Malisse has been unable to reach the semifinals of any tournament.

• In 2003 Grand Slam play, Malisse lost in the third round at both the Australian Open (to David Nalbandian 46 62 60 30 ret. due to a right forearm injury) and at Roland Garros (to Andre Agassi 64 75 75), and the first round at Wimbledon (to Cyril Saulnier 64 63 62).

• With an Entry Ranking of No. 174, Tursunov is now the lowest ranked player remaining in the draw.
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