Five Area Players in U.S. Open

Janet Lee of Rancho Palos Verdes will compete in her first main draw Grand Slam tennis event next week when she meets Tami Whitlinger in a first-round match of the U.S. Open.

Lee is one of five players with South Bay ties to play singles in the nation’s most prestigious tournament, whose draw was announced Thursday. Main draw play begins Monday in New York City.

Lee, 16, who will be a senior at Peninsula High in the fall, received a wild-card berth to the Open after winning the U.S. Tennis Assn. girls’ 18-and-under title earlier this month. Lee’s other accomplishments include winning the 1992 Southern Section singles title and helping the Panthers to the Division I championship the past two years.

This will be Lee’s 10th professional match. She is 4-5 lifetime, including advancing to the second round of two satellite tournaments, tennis’ equivalent of the minor leagues.

Lee is 547th on the Virginia Slims rankings, 285 spots above her ranking on March 1.

Whitlinger, 24, is ranked 63rd. The former Stanford standout reached the quarterfinals in the New South Wales Open in Sydney, Australia, in January and the semifinals of the IGA Tennis Classic in Oklahoma City in February.

But Whitlinger won only two other matches until late July, when she advanced to the quarterfinals of the Acura U.S. Women’s Hardcourt Championship.

The winner of the Lee-Whitlinger match will play either 16th-seeded Zina Garrison Jackson or Virginia Ruano-Pascual of Spain.

Lindsay Davenport, a former Chadwick High standout, will play Wiltrud Probst of Germany in a first-round match. Davenport, 17, is ranked 27th and Probst 75th. Davenport advanced to the second round of the 1992 Open, defeating Yayuk Basuki, 6-4, 6-4, before losing to eventual finalist Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, 6-2, 6-1.

Kimberly Po of Rolling Hills drew Ros Fairbank-Nideffer, a South African who makes her home in San Diego. The 59th-ranked Po reached the Open’s third round the past two years.

Two of Lee’s Peninsula teammates were losers in first-round qualifying for the Open Thursday. Amanda Basica was eliminated by Sylvie Sabas, 6-2, 6-2, and Nicole London lost to Karina Habsudova of the Czech Republic, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3).

Cammy MacGregor, a 1987 Palos Verdes High graduate, defeated Linda Niemantsvedriet of the Netherlands, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1, in a qualifying match.

Former Palos Verdes High standout Pete Sampras begins his quest for his second U.S. Open title and second Grand Slam title of 1993 against Fabrice Santoro of France. Jeff Tarango of Manhattan Beach drew Joao Cunha-Silva of Portugal as a first-round opponent.