Tuneups Have Them in Gear

The week before a Grand Slam event is usually tame and uneventful. Top players traditionally stay away from tournaments, not wanting to test themselves on the eve of a grueling two-week event.

Not so before the U.S. Open. Events of last week altered the landscape, subtly changing the outlook for the Open, which starts Monday.

For example:

* The comeback of Steffi Graf took on a new twist the last three days. As recently as a week ago, Graf visibly lacked confidence. Her shaky form had resulted in losses to Ai Sugiyama and Magui Serna.

A wild-card entry into New Haven, Conn., changed Graf’s fortunes. She recorded straight-set victories against Amanda Coetzer, Lindsay Davenport and Jana Novotna to win her first event since May of 1997.

* Defending U.S. Open champion Patrick Rafter might be able to show he is not a one-Slam wonder. Rafter looked tired after winning back-to-back events in Toronto and Cincinnati but rebounded to reach the Hamlet Cup final.

* It seemed as though nothing other than an injury could stop Davenport. So what happened? Davenport has a strained right wrist and it nearly caused her to default in the semifinals against Graf at New Haven.

MEN’S OUTLOOK

The Favorites:

1. Pete Sampras: He has not won a tournament since Wimbledon. Well, he didn’t win anything on grass before Wimbledon and look what happened at the All England Club.

2. Rafter: The title defense is a scary one for Rafter. If form holds, he could play Wimbledon finalist Goran Ivanisevic in the round of 16 and Sampras in the semifinals. And it’s doubtful Sampras will forget the controversial overrule in Rafter’s favor on match point in Cincinnati.

3. Andre Agassi: Could an Agassi-Sampras quarterfinal at the Open resuscitate men’s tennis? It would be nice to find out. Agassi, who won back-to-back events this summer, has not been in a Grand Slam final since the 1995 U.S. Open when he lost to Sampras.

The Contenders:

1. Richard Krajicek: Downside: Has never gone past the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open. Upside: Word is the courts are playing faster than usual, a benefit for the hard-serving Krajicek.

2. Alex Corretja: The nicest man in tennis showed he can survive away from the clay courts with his title at Indianapolis. A formidable obstacle looms in the fourth round, his Spanish countryman Carlos Moya. A Corretja-Moya confrontation would be rematch of the French Open final, which Moya won in straight sets.

3. Marcelo Rios: One magazine called him the most hated man in tennis, and Rios seemed the most-discussed man in tennis. Lately, there has been little talk of Rios, mainly because he has had problems winning matches. During his two-week stay at No. 1, Rios won once.

The Outsiders

1. Greg Rusedski: Downside: Lacking much match play after serious ankle injury in June. Upside: Finalist in 1997.

2. Petr Korda: Downside and Upside: Most unpredictable player this side of Ivanisevic.

3. Tim Henman: Downside: There are tabloids at this Grand Slam event. Upside: He’s playing in New York, not London.

4. Ivanisevic: Is this guy the Ilie Nastase of the ‘90s?

WOMEN’S OUTLOOK

The Favorites:

1. Davenport: Downside: Needed medical attention for strained right wrist against Graf. Upside: Gained immense confidence during three-tournament winning streak in July and August.

2. Monica Seles: Just when Seles was looking exhausted--having played five consecutive weeks--she won her first tournament of 1998, beating Martina Hingis and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in Montreal.

3. Hingis: Since winning the Italian Open in May, she has not won a tournament and reached one final, losing to Davenport at Manhattan Beach. The defending U.S. Open champion, Hingis is in danger of losing the No. 1 spot to either Davenport or Jana Novotna.

The Contenders:

1. Novotna: Who says you can’t play the best tennis of your career at age 29? Novotna has the chance to become No. 1, which would be a fitting bookend to her first Wimbledon title.

2. Graf: After a disappointing showing in Montreal, Graf wanted to practice in Florida. Her coach, Heinz Gunthardt, convinced her to take a wild card at New Haven. “He was very right,” Graf said after winning the tournament Saturday.

3. Venus Williams: The left knee is enough of a concern that she decided not to play doubles at the Open. She has been bothered by it all season and withdrew in the quarterfinals at the tournament in Carlsbad earlier this month and has not played a match since then.

The Outsiders:

1. Anna Kournikova: For all the hype, she has yet to win an event on the WTA tour.

2. Sanchez Vicario: Loud planes won’t be as much a distraction as the bugs were at New Haven.

3. Serena Williams: Lack of match play could be a factor as she has played three matches since Wimbledon.

MOVING FORWARD

Croatia’s Mirjana Lucic, 16, had been included in the group of teenagers poised to take over women’s tennis.

This year, the others advanced and the powerful baseliner, Lucic, stalled. Now, perhaps there is an explanation. Last week, she told the Zagreb newspaper, Slobodna Dalmacija, that her father, Marinko, abused her if she performed poorly.

“Sometimes it was because of the lost game, in other cases for the lost set or badly played trainings,” Lucic told the newspaper. “I don’t even want to say what happened after the matches I lost.”

Marinko Lucic, a former Olympic decathlon athlete, contradicted her account to another newspaper, Vecenj List, writing, “If I slammed her, that was because she didn’t behave nicely, never because of tennis.”

Mirjana Lucic, who has moved to Florida with her mother and four siblings from Croatia, said her action was prompted after her early loss to Serena Williams at Wimbledon.

“When I was beaten in Wimbledon, and when my father attacked my mother, I decided to move, to get out of his shadow and start a new life,” she said.

DROP SHOT

Starting in 2000, Ericsson Mobile Phones will become the title sponsor at the tournament in Key Biscayne, Fla., replacing Lipton. Lipton remains the title sponsor for 1999.