On and Off Court, U.S. Open Heats Up : Tennis: While Novotna announces she will retire and McEnroe is rumored to be Davis Cup captain, Serena Williams, Agassi and Davenport advance.

Labor Day at the U.S. Open was quite a workout for anybody keeping track of everything going on.

In no particular order:

* Veteran Czech star Jana Novotna retired, effective the end of the year.

* Rumors swirled that John McEnroe will be named U.S. Davis Cup captain for next season, replacing Tom Gullikson.

* Jennifer Capriati ended a news conference in which she released a statement demanding no more questions about her past drug use by putting her head down on the interview table and crying.

* Serena Williams, 17, went three sets again before advancing to a quarterfinal against Monica Seles and then talked as if she were an aging veteran, near retirement.

* Andre Agassi won easily again, and, when asked afterward about Capriati’s emotional breakdown, said he has learned to enjoy his sessions with the press.

* Chile’s Marcelo Rios, seeded No. 10 and a projected quarterfinal challenger to Agassi, did his usual early disappearing act in straight sets to qualifier Nicolas Escude of France, then said that Escude has no shot in the quarterfinals against Agassi.

* Ukrainian Andrei Medvedev got dizzy early in his match with Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov and dropped the second and third sets of his straight-set loss in a total of 49 minutes, then ripped the U.S Tennis Assn. for having less-than-adequate facilities here for a Grand Slam event, including only four toilets for 256 players.

* An 82-year-old named Manny Hershkowitz served as a ball boy during one of the junior matches.

All this before the evening matches, in which Lindsay Davenport avenged a loss to Julie Halard-Decugis at the Acura tournament in Manhattan Beach by winning yet another quick match, 6-1, 6-2, en route to defense of her U.S. Open title. Davenport’s serve was broken in the first game of the match, then she broke back and never looked back.

In the final match of the evening, former Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek, seeded No. 12, made his way into a quarterfinal opposite Kafelnikov by handling unseeded Vince Spadea, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2. Krajicek hit huge serves all night--16 aces in a match that only took 1 hour 44 minutes.

Novotna will be 31 on Oct. 2. She won the Wimbledon title in 1998, has been one of the best doubles players in the women’s game for years and was ranked No. 10 coming into the U.S. Open, where she was ousted Friday by Anke Huber. This was the 50th Grand Slam event of her career.

“I think that winning Wimbledon last year made this decision much easier,” Novotna said. “I can look back and just be very thankful for the very long and healthy career I had.”

It has been rumored for weeks that McEnroe; his brother, Patrick, and Pete Sampras’ coach, Paul Annacone, are the likely candidates to replace Gullikson, were the USTA to decide that Gullikson’s recent lack of success is cause for termination. An Internet service reported that McEnroe was the choice, but McEnroe said on CBS that, if that is true, nobody has told him.

Later, on USA network, announcer Ted Robinson playfully asked McEnroe, “So, John, do you have something to tell me?”

A smiling McEnroe said, “Soon, very soon.”

Capriati, playing Seles in a reprise of their 1991 classic in the U.S. Open semifinals, had numerous chances to get in front of Seles, but lost the hard-hitting duel, 6-4, 6-3. Afterward, handling her loss just fine but the prospect of facing the media not quite as well, read her statement and, before leaving in tears, said, “I mean, I’m tired of like every time I read something about myself, I always read that little tidbit about the past.”

Serena Williams beat former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, saying that her semifinal matchup with Seles was less pressure-packed than her previous matches because Seles is a great player, is seeded above her and she has nothing to lose. Afterward, while talking about Novotna’s retirement, and about her serve-and-volley style, Serena said that the “next generation” would bring that style of play back.

“I mean, even younger girls,” she said. “I can’t stick around too long.”

Serena Williams will turn 18 Sept. 26.

The men’s draw continued to be a dream come true for Agassi, who not only took out No. 52 Arnaud Clement, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3, but also gets to play next the only qualifier in the history of this event to make it to the quarterfinals, Escude. The No. 136-ranked Escude beat a player who has given Agassi much trouble in the past, Rios, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5. Rios said of the Agassi quarterfinal, “I think Andre won’t have any trouble to beat him.”

Among the things Agassi talked about afterward was what was buzzing around the National Tennis Center all day, Capriati’s emotional news conference.

“I find the actual position of being in the media focus quite a good one,” he said. “It gives me a really objective platform to take a really good look at myself without actually having to take it personally.”

Medvedev, who lost to Agassi in this year’s French final, said he started to feel weak in the first set and, while deciding not to default because too many players have already done that here and because he wants to give New York tennis fans his best always, hung around just long enough to let Kafelnikov tag him, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1, 6-0.

Afterward, as is the tendency with the always-entertaining Medvedev, discussion wandered from the match to whatever was on his mind. And that was the USTA’s inability to make this Grand Slam as classy as the other three.

“I just happened to be a spectator at the PGA tournament last year or two years ago,” he said. “I saw the facilities there. It is day and night.”

As for Hershkowitz, they actually offered him for interviews. Notice that no quotes follow here.

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WOMEN

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Venus Williams (3) vs. Barbara Schett (12)