Seles Sidelined for French Open

A chronic foot injury has knocked three-time champion Monica Seles out of the French Open. This is the first French Open Seles will skip since 1995. She had missed 1993, 1994 and 1995 because of the 1993 stabbing incident shortly before the French Open.

Seles, 27, has struggled with the stress fracture of her right foot since the fall, sitting out for three months before the season-ending WTA championships, and her continuing troubles raise speculation about her future. She took an early loss to Tathiana Garbin of Italy at Indian Wells in March quite hard and did not play until losing her first match in Madrid this week.

“I’m really disappointed. I gave my best effort. I came here really hoping to play, but my foot is just not ready,” said Seles, who tested her foot in practice Thursday night and Friday morning.

Her withdrawal benefited Meghann Shaughnessy, now among seeded players at No. 16, and sisters Venus and Serena Williams. Serena moved up to No. 6, avoiding being put in the same half of the draw as No. 2 Venus.

The draw was held at Roland Garros Friday and the toughest portion appears to be the quarter of Venus, No. 5 Amelie Mauresmo of France and No. 14 Justine Henin of Belgium. Henin defeated Williams, 6-1, 6-4, in the third round at the German Open in Berlin. Mauresmo has won four tournaments this year, including two on clay.

Also in the same half but in the other quarter are No. 3 Lindsay Davenport, No. 7 Elena Dementieva of Russia, No. 12 Kim Clijsters of Belgium and No. 15 Jelena Dokic of Yugoslavia, the Italian Open champion.

Davenport has been out for eight weeks with a bone bruise of her right knee. “It was 50-50 whether I was going to come here,” she said Friday after practicing. “It felt pretty good last week and I decided to play. It’s feeling OK.”

Top-seeded Martina Hingis of Switzerland, who has not won a tournament since February, will open against Gala Leon Garcia of Spain in the first round. If form holds, she could face No. 8 Conchita Martinez of Spain in the quarterfinals and No. 4 Jennifer Capriati in the semifinals.

On the men’s side, 1999 champion Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras are in the same quarter of the draw, but Sampras has not advanced past the third round at Roland Garros since 1996. His first-round match will be against a qualifier.

Two of the top clay-courters in 2001 are on the other side of the draw: top-seeded and defending champion Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil and No. 4 Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain. Kuerten and Ferrero could meet in the semifinals, if form holds. The toughest quarter has Ferrero, No. 6 Lleyton Hewitt of Australia and 18-year-old Andy Roddick, who won two clay-court events in the United States this spring.

Roddick is making his French Open debut and will play wild card Scott Draper of Australia in the first round and could face either Alexander Popp of Germany or Michael Chang in the second. The first seeded player he could face is Hewitt.