Evert Cup Loses Seles, Fernandez

Two former champions, Monica Seles and Mary Joe Fernandez, withdrew Monday from this week’s State Farm Evert Cup at Indian Wells.

Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, 1994 U.S. Open champion and two-time French Open champion, also will skip the event. The eighth-ranked Sanchez Vicario has a left leg injury and has not played since the Australian Open in January. She is 9-1 in 1998.

Neither the fourth-ranked Seles nor Fernandez has played a tournament in 1998. Seles, winner at Indian Wells in 1992, has taken time off the tour to be with her ill father at home in Florida. Fernandez, who won at Indian Wells in 1995, is still recovering from right wrist surgery. She is ranked 16th.

Qualifying for the women’s event, at Grand Champions Resort, begins Wednesday and first-round main-draw play starts Friday.

The men’s main draw for the Newsweek Champions Cup at the same site starts March 9. Wild-card entries have been given to Andre Agassi, Boris Becker, Mal Washington and Aussie teenager Lleyton Hewitt.