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Sisters forfeit on Serena's injury

By DARRELL FRY and times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 8, 2000

NEW YORK -- Serena Williams withdrew from the doubles field Thursday, citing an inflamed bone in her left foot, tournament officials said.

Serena and her sister, Venus, forfeited their semifinal match, sending Cara Black and Elena Likhovtseva into the final. Serena was scheduled to be re-examined by a tournament doctor Thursday and was hopeful of competing with Venus for the United States at the Olympics, which begin Sept. 15 in Sydney, Australia.

Serena suffered a similar injury last month at a tournament in Montreal, forcing her to retire from the final against Martina Hingis. Serena presumably aggravated the injury during her quarterfinal loss Wednesday night to Lindsay Davenport, although Williams gave no indications during or after the match that she was injured.

SWEET PETE NOT SLOWING: Pete Sampras could retire today and still be widely considered the greatest of all-time. But his haul of 13 Grand Slam singles titles and millions in prize money hasn't made him begin to think about retiring, even though he's approaching 30.

"The motivation are the Slams. I mean, that's where I'm at in my tennis," said Sampras, who is going for his fifth U.S. Open singles title. "When you taste winning Slams throughout the year, you just want to keep on tasting them.

"Right now, I'm reasonably young and healthy (and) I've got the game, I might as well take advantage of it and try to make it 14."

And if he never wins the French Open, will it be a blemish on his career?

"The critics will always say (it is) unless I win the French or get over that hurdle," Sampras said. "If my career ended next year or five years or whatever, and I didn't win the French, I would feel pretty good about what I've done."

SHE PROBABLY ONLY HAD A 20: During her quarterfinal win Wednesday over Serena Williams, Davenport was so sure a line call was wrong that she playfully offered the chair umpire $1,000 to check the faint mark of the ball on the court.

"The umpire was just telling me, "No, no, that ball wasn't in.' " Davenport said. "I knew she was wrong, so I was only going to put money on something when I know I'm right."

DID YOU KNOW?: Forty-seven years ago Thursday Maureen Connolly won the singles title 6-2, 6-4 over Doris Hart, becoming the first woman to sweep tennis' four major tournaments and win a rare Grand Slam.

BRINGING IT HOME: Jared Palmer, who grew up in Tampa, won the mixed doubles title with partner Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario.

Palmer and Sanchez-Vicario, seeded second, breezed past third seeds Max Mirnyi and Anna Kournikova 6-4, 6-3.

Palmer fell short of reaching the men's doubles final when he and Alex O'Brien were upset by unseeded Lleyton Hewitt and Mirnyi in the semifinals.

U.S. 4TH SEED IN DAVIS CUP: The United States was seeded fourth Thursday in the World Group for the 2001 Davis Cup in the draw conducted at the U.S. Open.

Australia and Spain, set to play the 2000 Cup final at Barcelona in December, received the top two World Group seeds for next year. Sweden was third followed by the United States, France, Russia, Brazil and Germany.

Criteria for selection includes previous performance, ranking of players likely to participate, experience on different surfaces and experience in doubles.

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