US OPEN

August 20, 2003

Opening Draw Ceremony

SHASHI THAROOR: Thank you. And welcome to the United Nations. I'm sorry that on this other wide splendid day you do not have all of the flags of all the nations flying outside this building, because as you know, we are in mourning today and our flag flies at half-mast. Secretary Kofi Annan is literally airborne at the moment, flying back from a brief vacation, and has asked me to convey to you the following message on his behalf. Let me allow this to read in his name and my voice:

KOFI ANNAN (AS READY BY SHASHI THAROOR): You are very welcome here at the United Nations headquarters for the Draw Ceremony to determine the singles pairings for this year's US Open tennis championship. You come at a time of great sadness for all of us at the United Nations. We have valiantly lost many beloved colleagues. We are grieving for them. But we know they would tell us to get on with the job, and that is why we were determined that this event should go ahead today. Tennis and the United Nations have important features in common. Here at the United Nations, we see many long and dramatic contests. We see quite a few tie-breakers and nail-biting fifth sets, as well as the odd disputed line call. And yes, there are some issues which seem to be hit interminably back and forth over the net. There are more important common features than these. Like the United Nations, tennis is universal. There are few sports which are played and loved so widely. Players from 61 countries are expected to take part in this year's US Open, which will be televised in 165 countries. The United Nations, of course, has 191 members, but we're sure you'll catch up. Yet the most important impact of tennis, as with the United Nations, is at the local level. Communities in rich and poor countries alike are touched by the game. Young people, whether they dream of winning the Grand Slam or of finding their way out of poverty, find in tennis as other sports, an important focus of physical fitness and development of character. That is why I am delighted that today's Draw Ceremony is held here at the United Nations, and why I send the organizers and players my very best wishes for a successful Open.

SHASHI THAROOR: I also send my thanks to Kofi Annan, and Vijay Armritraj, one of my Messengers of Peace for his initiative in proposing that today's event be held here at the U.N. He is a symbol of the universal appeal of tennis and of its capacity to build bridges to local communities, and I am glad that he is with you today. Having conveyed that message to you from the secretary general, let me say that it is my pleasure to introduce to you a man who truly needs no introduction in this company or in this building about my good friend, Vijay.

VIJAY AMRITRAJ: My dear friends, it's not my job to make a speech on this occasion. As Shashi very vitally pointed out, it is a very sad day for us at the U.N. but it is a great honor and a privilege for me to serve as Master of Peace for the Secretary General and for this incredible organization that I have always admired over the years. Tennis, as you all know, has been my life. It has given me everything I could have possibly wished for and more in life, the greatest of which has been an education. And for me, to be able to bring both the game of tennis and the international aspect of what the United Nations stands for together on this very special memorable day for us in tennis is really a special moment for me. I want to thank Alan and everyone as the US Open, Jim Curley, David Newman, Brian Earley, all of my friends at the US Open, I have played that event for 31 years. I'm only 38. But it is a delight to see all of you here at this incredibly historic building. (Laughter). To my good friend, Shashi, who I have known for a very long time, I always thought that international organizations, governments, never hired brilliant people, and having now been a Messenger of Peace for over two years, I am completely wrong in the people that they have at the U.N. and the work that they do through all of their various agencies. It is quite unmanageable until you really see it firsthand. And to be a part of it, I am privileged to be a Messenger of Peace. So, as far as tennis is concerned, we all know that the US Open, perhaps outside of the Olympic Games in the United States, is certainly the most international of competitions to be held in the sporting world anywhere across the U.S. my congratulations to the US Open, to the president and the committee members who put together a magnificent event year after year. Just when we think it cannot be excelled, perhaps last year's final was the one in question, Sampras and Agassi, which was really a goosebump final, as most of us called it. It would be wonderful to see such an Open event this year, literally, both in the men and women to see who can come out and winning the singles championships. In any case, it will always be a very special US Open, the last of the Grand Slams which will really determine who will be the world's No. 1 player towards the end of the year. To you all my tennis friends and to all of the media who I have known for many years, working along side of you on both sends of the spectrum, you have covered me, said some nice things about me, some not so nice things about me on the odd occasion, but it is a pleasure to work with you all as I will for the next two and a half weeks the at the US Open. On my behalf, and as Shashi pointed out, on behalf of the U.N., it is wonderful to have you all here. Thank you to all who supported having the Draw Ceremony here, and to all of you at the US Open, thank you for being here. (Applause).

ALAN SCHWARTZ: Thank you, David. Thank you, Shashi, for taking time out from what is a very, very busy schedule. And I will not feel offended if you leave. I know you have another appointment at this very same time, but your words and the way you delivered Kofi's words was very meaningful. On behalf of the entire United States Tennis Association, we share your grief at the loss of colleagues and we know how important that job of peace is that you carry and you propel, Vijay, as we had two very, very unfortunate incidents today which are exactly contrary to what the United Nations and peace stands for. Vijay, you are a very special guy. You've been -- I didn't know the 31 years, but thank goodness for senior tennis. But two times in the quarterfinals and many times giving us an absolutely spectacular show when you're out there, including with your brother, and now of course just a year ago, your son, Pradish, won the U.S. National Junior Championship at Kalamazoo. I know that he's gone on to turn professional, doing some very exciting things right now. For those of you who may not be familiar with the peace position, that Messenger of Peace, that Vijay has, there are only nine such people, and they include, as his colleagues, people like Muhammad Ali, people like Elie Wiesel, and others, Winton Marsalis, Pavarotti, just a very exclusive group of nine, and we are delighted to have a tennis player represent us in that group of nine. (Applause). I'd also like to recognize a couple of other dignitaries that are here with us today in the audience. But for one of them, we would not be here at the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, and I'd like to have you give a resounding applause to the gentleman who for six years ha served on our board, and more importantly, was directly responsible forgetting us the National Tennis Center. Will you stand up and take a bow, David Dickens, please. (Applause). He does an excellent job of keeping us true to our mission, which is to promote and develop the growth of tennis, and within that mission, I won't say he wants to forget about everybody over 14, but he sure does like to concentrate on those kids under 14 and does a great job doing it. The second dignitary that we have here that I want to recognize is the gentleman that I personally recruited hard and am pleased to say I was successful in getting to be our executive director and COO, who has brought boundless energy and insights and skills to the USTA and will be here for a substantial number of years to come, will you please stand up, Lee Hamilton. (Applause). When they wrote the line, "Tennis DNA," they were thinking about Lee Hamilton, and to give you an idea of the kind of devotion to the job, Lee gave up being chairman of the board of Bucknell University, board of trustees of Bucknell, so that he could devote those same kind of energies to the USTA. We are very thankful, and thank you very much, Lee. As you eluded to earlier, Vijay, it's very clear that in many ways tennis does mirror the United Nations. I hesitate to correct you on some statistics, or correct Shashi on some statistics, but I would let you know that if you consider those participating in the qualifying event, we represent over 70 countries. And that's a remarkable achievement and tells you about the globalization of our sport. If I can carry statistics a little bit further, which I do enjoy, I believe that there are 23 countries represented with seeds, which is a remarkable situation. You talk about a global sport: Of the Top 10 seeds of the men, there are nine different countries represented; in the women's case, there are six out of the Top 10. That's a remarkable showing of how international our sport really is. I'm proud to tell you that the US Open is the largest single annually-attended event in the world. You only catch where there is annual because the Olympics comes every four years, which does exceed the 640,000 that we have, but it is indeed so. So when you said it is the top tournament in the United States, with all due deference to the English, I would suggest to you that perhaps we would like to think of No. 1, we certainly do in attendance. And also, having the world's largest single sports purse, if you include the qualifying, it's $17 million, with I'm proud to say for the 25th year, equal prize money for men and women, and we intend to maintain it that way. (Applause). One has learned to do that when you want to live comfortably with your wife for 45 years. (Laughter). There are a couple of other statistics that I thought you might find of interest, and in my research I found them rather startling. There are 30,000 hours of broadcast of the US Open spread out among 166 countries. There are, if we can judge from last year and the number has been rising steadily, last year there were 13 million hits on our Web site, which was up substantially from the prior year, and if that trend continues, at the same rate of ascent, we would look forward to 15 or 16 million hits this year. We are very proud of the event. I think when you're out there, you will see some remarkable changes, subtle as they may be, in the stadium, in the grounds. And that's a perfect lead-in for me to tell you that our next speaker, whom I'm delighted to introduce, Arlen Kantarian, has been the one who I believe more anyone else and with the help of his team brought this tournament to the next level and changed it from being a tournament to an experience. Arlen, delighted to have you here. Come on up and say a few words.

ARLEN KANTARIAN: Thanks, Alan. Thanks again, Vijay, and thanks for all being here. It was truly, or has been truly a team EFFORT. As Alan mentioned those stats, bring this event up to one of the Top 5 events throughout the world. I do want to acknowledge a couple of those people that are here that really do get a lot of the credit for that: Jim Curley, who you will be hearing from shortly, our tournament director, who joined us a year and a half ago, along with Brian Earley, our referee who will again conduct the draw shortly; our tournament manager, David Brewer; you heard from David Newman, our new head of marketing and public relations, along with Michelle de Phillip Antonio, our head of marketing. We also have our chief operating officer here today, Pierce O'Neil, who heads up all of our television operations, maybe the most complex television operations in all of sports. So that's the team, along with many, many others that have certainly helped build this event. Thank you, guys. Also, three very important partners here today. From 18 years, our partnership with USA Network gets better and better. Gordon Beck, our executive producer at USA Networks, is here today. Our partner for 25 years, CBS Sports, represented here today by senior vice president of CBS, Rob Correa. And a gentleman from Clear Channel Communications here today with us, representing the television for the 165 countries that Alan mentioned, Dennis Spencer is here with us today, as well. Just very quickly, before moving on to the draw, we want to tell you a little bit about what's new this year. If we can dim the lights just a bit. Over the past couple of years, as Alan mentioned, this group that I had just mentioned has really come up with a number of player enhancements, fan enhancements, new trends that we want to carry forward with the event all to accomplish three very simple goals. One is to build the event into one of the Top 5 sports and entertainment spectacles in the world, which I feel this year we have achieved. Two, to provide added value to our most important constituencies, our players, our fans, the media and our business partners. And three, to work for directly using the Open as a showcase for the sport in this country and worldwide, really to accomplish our mission. This is a huge fund-raiser. Every penny that is raised in the US Open goes back and is invested into growing the sport through the United States. So in order to accomplish those goals over the past couple of years, you have all seen many, many changes at the US Open, ranging from taking the women's finals for the first time ever to the nighttime to prime time, thanks to CBS; big screens in stadiums, first time ever in a tennis event; record prize money; going from 16 top seeds to 32 seeds; live entertainment throughout the ground; we are broadcasting on radio now, as well as television; new ad campaigns; we had a Jumbotron last year in Rockefeller Center, where over one 100,000 people on their lunch breaks and after work were able to watch live feeds from CBS and USA Network. That has achieved the results that Alan already took you through: Record attendance, record coverage in over 165 countries, highest TV viewership we have ever had, 151 million just in this country alone, Web site visits. One thing that Alan did not mention, this event now brings in over $420 million, direct economic impact to the City of New York. That is more than the total of the Yankees, Mets, Knicks and Rangers combined in a full season. So this is real and truly become a New York event as witnessed by that, as well. I think beyond these numbers, though, the Open has a new energy and a new feel to it, and instead of stats, we want to show you a little three-minute highlight video from last year, particularly since there were two finalists there that you may not see in the Open this year. (Video played).

ARLEN KANTARIAN: That film, every time we watch it, just a great tribute to the game. This year, we will be introducing a number of new initiatives as well, all under the theme of "The USTA and New York City Welcome the World." We will begin this Monday night with a special opening night ceremonies, including Broadway performance, short Broadway performance from the Tony award-winning show on opening night called Movin' Out, Billy Joel's show. We will have a 70-nation flag ceremony representing the nations of all the participating players; an armed forces color guard, along with the NYPD/FDNY color guard; and a very special anthem performance which we will announce shortly. About exactly 635 matches later and two weeks later, we will be at finals weekend for the first time, each of the finalists will be competing for a check of $1 million, part of the $17 million prize money. We will this year be putting the women's prime-time final an hour earlier as a start time, 8:00 PM versus 9:00; celebrity anthems on-court. And this year, on finals weekend we will be having a very, very special induction ceremony that we want to introduce to you today. Over the last two months, we have had over 50 journalist and television broadcasters voting on the all-time greatest champions in the 122-year history of the US Open. The result of that balloting was released last night in a press release, and what they did was they selected the winners from each of the US Open eras in what we call the US Open era, 1968 to present, Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert. In what we'll call those players whose careers spanned both eras as, Rod Laver and Billie Jean king. And in the golden era, the selections were Bill Tilden and Helen Willis-Moody. I will not take the time to go through the bios of all those players, phenomenal stories each and of their own. We have all seen some memorable moments in the Open, but I think inducting these champions into our new Court of Champions, which will be a permanent display, a lasting tribute to these greatest champions and others that will be added annually, I think that on-court induction ceremony will certainly be a special event in finals weekend. We'll see a number of new fan enhancements. We completely renovated the grandstand court. We have brand new display and video boards to traffic people through the site, live audio at seats. Our fans will now be able to hear the TV commentary. We tested this last year through a radio device on court and throughout the grounds listening to live CBS and/or USA Network feed. We will again relaunch our Rock Center Jumbotrons in Rockefeller Center. And we have introduced a fun concept in New York City called Battle of the Badges, where throughout the summer the NYPD and FDNY have been playing to become a finalist and will play in between matches first week at the US Open, the Finest versus the Bravest, in something that's really caught on here in New York City, and people, of course, very helpful to what we do at the US Open. So we are proud of that, as well. We are going to make our most aggressive move in promoting this event in the sport. We began this last week, over $10 million media impact throughout the tri-state area, including trailers in over 130 movie screens throughout New York, 1,800 transit posters and bus sides, radio spots. We'll have 100 taxicabs on top of their taxis electronically showing people live scores, as well as upcoming matches as they travel throughout New York City. We will be on 5 million Pepsi cans. A few of our sponsors which are helping us to promote the activity, and then American Express, which just does terrific player-oriented campaigns, one 30-second ad, and we'll go to the draw that we did want to share with you that they will be breaking, I believe tomorrow, that we thought you would enjoy. (Video played). And of course, it's all about the main event with over 606 players, including qualifying, over 900 matches. Right now we have a $1 million qualifying event taking place at the National Tennis Center. And of course, in addition to the $1 million prize to singles we will be offering a record $400,000 prize money to doubles, which we fully believe in and want to further promote doubles activity at the US Open this year and throughout the country. With that, we would like to now move into the draw. (DRAW CONDUCTED.)

PATRICK McENROE: I want to start from the top of the draw here, a couple of quick insights. Obviously, without Serena playing this year, it certainly opens the door for a couple other contenders. Serena obviously would have been the favorite, but let's focus on who is here. Kim Clijsters has been the most consistent player, but she's yet to win a big one. She's yet to win a Grand Slam. I think she's ready to win one, myself, because she's been so good all year. She's lost to Henin-Hardenne in a couple of big matches, obviously the biggest one at the finals of the French where she really didn't show up for that mentally, Kim didn't, but I think that she feels like she has something to prove, being No. 1 in the rankings and still having not won a tournament. Her draw, quite honestly, looks pretty good. Kuznetsova, who is better known at the moment as Martina's doubles partner, is a good singles player, but not good enough to worry Kim Clijsters. Zvonareva is another, and Coetzer, I don't expect her to be a factor. Interesting round with Ashley Harkelroad, an American, that played well early in the year and had some big wins on the clay is yet to play as well this summer, but, you know, she'll be ready to play her best at the Open. Daniela Hantuchova is a question where she is -- she's had some health problems this year, she has not lived up to all of her talents just yet. I don't think she's strong enough to do some damage here. Mauresmo has played pretty well this past week, but she's a number of injuries, the French woman, she seems to play better in New York. She's had some of her best matches in New York. At the French she has a lot of pressure on her. If she's healthy, I think it will be Mauresmo-Clijsters in the quarter there, not a big surprise. Lindsay Davenport here, she's got to say to herself, this might be one of her last chances. With Serena out, I think for someone like a Lindsay Davenport, someone like a Jennifer Capriatti, they might say to themselves, "Hey, I've got a shot here." And with Venus being questionable health-wise, we don't know how healthy she is, we know she's not in great shape because she has not played all summer. So you have to think that Lindsay and Jennifer, just despite both of them coming actually a little bit nicked up. Lindsay has had the trouble with her foot and Jennifer has had trouble with her pectoral muscle and her shoulder. She's got a good draw. First couple of rounds look pretty routine. Lisa Raymond, her good friend and doubles partner, often times is in that section but in singles is not going to worry her too much. And Chanda Rubin has quietly had the best last year of her career. And what a story she is, coming back from a couple knee surgeries. She'll love playing in the Open. It's her favorite surface on pretty quick hard court. She's got a very nice-looking draw, as well. A couple talented players in there, Daniilidou is a talented player, but I don't see anybody really -- I guess I should mention Petrova. Petrova is in there at No. 41 and she played great at French. She's a big hitter and if she gets hot, she could be a factor but I think she's a little inconsistent. Mentally I think the US Open is a real test that a lot of players don't like, to be honest, with all of the ruckus going on. So I think for someone like Lindsay or Chanda, it helps them; they are used to it. So I see Lindsay and Chanda getting through, and it wouldn't surprise me if Chanda actually gets through to the semis; that would not surprise me at all. She's played well enough. She's got enough confident going. Let's move to the bottom of the draw. Capriatti, look, if she's healthy she's going to be a factor. Someone that we should circle in her section of the draw there, is Maria Sharapova, who we saw do so well at Wimbledon, is probably going to be in the Top 10 within a year, I would say, and that is someone that's worrisome in that section. Stevenson is a bit inconsistent; she's in that section was one of the lower seeds. Really, to me Capriatti, you have to worry about Sharapova there. I think that's really the only person that worries her until Venus, to be honest, and Venus there at No. 4. In my mind coming into the Open on the women's sides is the two Belgians, and it's Venus and Jennifer, and obviously dependent on how healthy Venus. So you're going to have Venus and Jennifer playing in the quarters and only one of them is going to make it to the semis and that's pretty significant. If I were to pick a Final Four coming in, I could very well pick those two, along with the two Belgian girls. Then you get down to Henin-Hardenne, who has to be just licking her chops because she has a dream draw. She has played very well this summer. She bright Clijsters on hard court earlier this summer in California. She's focused. She's mentally probably the toughest one out there. I would say mentally she's the toughest. You know, she's got a great draw. I mean, there's really nobody -- why seen see anybody through the quarters that's going to worry her at all. Maybe Jelena Dokic, but quite honestly she's pretty inconsistent, so I would be surprised if she even got out there. So Henin-Hardenne has a great draw because she's into the quarters, I think pretty easily. She's got either Capriatti or Venus who is going to be knocked out. She's not going to have to deal with both of them, and then in the top, as I said, to me it's Clijsters and one of the veteran Americans, either Lindsay or Chanda. So it shakes out pretty well, to be honest. The question mark -- and the good news, by the way, for Venus Williams, is she has a pretty routine couple of first matches. So for her she can probably come in, although Tina Pisnik, a decent player from Slovenia, probably not a good enough to worry her, and she has Schiavone from Italy. So it's a good draw for Venus. She comes in obviously not sharp. She'll be able to hopefully for her get a couple of easy matches and see where she is. I think it's worth pointing out that Sugiyama in there at 15 is also to me pretty dangerous on hard court. She plays well. She hits the ball very flat. So Venus is a little off; that could be a tricky match for her. That is the way I see the women's. So, let's move on to the men. I heard my friends at CBS clap when they realized Roddick was on the other side of the draw from Agassi. But, I'm not sure they were aware who Roddick is now playing. They are now, the only guy that's beaten Roddick the whole summer, and that's Tim Henman. So I think we know what USA Network is going to be having on the air Monday or Tuesday night, Roddick and Henman. Henman beat Roddick in Washington this summer in the semifinals. Roddick had one match point and that is the only match he's lost this summer. He's won three of the hard court tournaments. In my mind, he's the favorite for the US Open this year. But what a first round match that is going to be, and Henman seems to be in obviously pretty good shape. He went on this win that tournament, by the way, in Washington. Let's start with the top of the draw. Let's also note that Andre Agassi playing in his 18th US Open is the No. 1 seed. So to me, that's pretty darned impressive at 33 years old. He's of course won the Open twice, '94 and'99. He's got an interesting first round there with Corretja, who is a former Top-10 player. Certainly knows how to play in big matches. So that's a test for Andre. I mean, for the first round I don't think that's someone that he would like to play. I think once you get a couple of matches in, he matches up well with Corretja and his game. But certainly an opening-round match, that's difficult for Andre, and Corretja serves well enough; could give him some trouble. By the way, there's only two other players other than Agassi who have won the Open before, and that's Lleyton Hewitt, of course who won a couple of years ago, and Marat Safin, who won in 2000; we don't know where his head is at, to say the least. Let's continue with the Agassi section of the draw. I think the most dangerous player there comes from a country that one of our nice hosts come from, from Belarus up there, the beat Max Mirnyi, who has had just a great year and a great summer. It would not surprise me in the least to see Mirnyi and Agassi in the round of 16. You've got Fernando Gonzalez in there, sort of an interesting first round match for him against Chang, whose farewell tour will end here in New York at the US Open. He has not played well at all this year. Gonzalez is a dangerous player. He has some knee problems off and on this year. So I like Mirnyi to come through that section. He's been playing well, he serves and volleys, and Mirnyi -- he played actually Agassi in the quarters last year and lost a very good four-set match. Mardy Fish is also in this section along with Sebastien Grosjean, who is one of the best players, if not the best player out there, that has never won a major. He has been in the semifinals of every Grand Slam except I think the Open. So he is always dangerous. Mardy Fish is coming off his best week of his career in Cincinnati, where he had a couple of match points on Roddick and lost. So that would certainly -- in fact I would expect to see a Sebastien Grosjean-Mardy Fish match in the third round; and I would probably expect the winner of that one actually to get to the quarters because you've got Guillermo Coria in there who has had an unbelievable year on clay. But is still not proven on a fast hard court. So I think that Mardy Fish, Grosjean, more than likely against Agassi in the quarterfinals. We move down a section to Ferrero Juan Carlos who won the French Open this year, been the best clay court player in the world the last two years. Now says he believes he can be No. 1. Well, to be No. 1, he's going to have to do well at the Open, if not win it, get to the final. I don't see that happening. The courts are a little bit too quick for him. His confident is not great after not a great last couple of weeks. He pulled out of tournament on Long Island. I don't think he's really injured, but he wanted to sort of try to get his head straight. Speaking of getting your head straight, you have Marat Safin in there, who we all wish would get his head straight and would get healthy, but I don't think either one of those has happened. So a guy that has all of the talent in the world and all of the game in the world who should be right up there with Hewitt -- we'll get to him in a minute -- should be right up there with Roddick and Ferrero and Fedderer as the new brigade that's just about to take over men's tennis. He is not really part of the mix right now, but who knows. This is a guy who is talented enough to actually win a couple rounds and get to the semis or the finals. That's possible. I don't see it happening, but he's got a good draw. I can tell you that Ferrero doesn't want to see him in the third round. That, I can guarantee you. Then Wayne Ferreira is in there. This guy, this is his 13th US Open, so good effort by him just to be seeded, still out there. Couple other people that just sort of mention, Todd Martin, I think we should mention, all of his great runs at the US Open. He plays Robert Yim, who is a wild card. He won the Junior Nationals for 18 and under. That's an interesting little match-up there. Martin Verkerk has won one match since he made the finals in the French only. So don't expect him to catch fire in New York. Hewitt, we move to his section, he's got to be pretty happy, I think, with his first couple matches. Obviously his confidence is at an all-time low, which is shocking, considering how tough he's been, No. 1 last two years. So it's almost inexplicable really what's happened to him. Nobody really knows where his head is. But he certainly is a guy, we know what he can do when he gets late into a tournament, particularly in New York. He thrives in the conditions. He won it two years ago. He played a great match with Agassi in the semis last year, losing. In fact, Pete Sampras can probably thank him a little bit for Hewitt taking a lot out of Agassi before that great final. So Hewitt, there's a couple dangerous guys in his section. I like Tommy Robredo, by the way. He's a guy that I think can get through. I like him getting past Paradorn Srichaphan, who plays well on hard court, but to me, Tommy Robredo is a good competitor. We will talk about the Spaniards ranked ahead of him, like Moya and Ferrero, but I think Robredo may be the last Spaniard standing come second week of the tournament. So Hewitt has got to be pretty good. Lopez, by the way, who is a big server, big lefty serve in his section, is dangerous, but if Hewitt gets through the first couple rounds, then I think we start talking about him as a factor late in the second week. So we move to the next section, with old Rainer Schuettler, the Australian Open finalist who just keeps winning matches but is not a threat to win the tournament. This is a weak section right here, with Schuettler, Albert Costa, Mantilla, Schalken made the semis last year at the Open but he's not playing as well this year. So this sort of little section this top quarter right here is -- actually, if Roddick gets through his first rounds, he should be in very good shape to get through to the semis. You've got Kuerten in there who is a shadow of his former self, unfortunately, for all of us who loved to watch him. He has not quite recovered from that injury he had a year and a half ago. Vince Spadea, the veteran who worked his way back up through the Challengers and tournaments all over the world, good effort by him to be a seed at 32, No. 32 seed, but he's not going to be getting in Roddick's way, if that match happens. Then we have the bottom section which is actually pretty interesting. We go down to Federer at the bottom, you know what I like about the men's game this year is that the three best players have won the three biggest tournaments and that to me makes the Open more interesting. Because the best player on hard court is Agassi, the first part of the year; the best clay court player is clearly Ferrero, he wins the French; the best all-court player, grass player is Federer and he won Wimbledon. That has not happened for awhile, where actually the guys you would expect and if you're a fan sort of hope would take their game up to that level and won. Roddick has been the best player on hard court in the summer. To me, No. 1 really comes down to the Open on the men's side. If Roddick wins the Open, he's got a very strong case to be 1. He's already 1 in the Champions Race. If he wins the Open you could make a strong case for him being 1. If Agassi wins the Open, he's going to be 1 because he's won two Slams. And Federer has not had a great summer but he's won some matches since he won Wimbledon, which was an awesome display of all-court tennis by Roger Federer. But his draw is pretty tough. The first couple rounds should be pretty easy for him, but then James Blake is in there, Zabaleta against Blake is a good first round, and then James Blake is starting to play well again the last couple of weeks. So I would expect him to beat Zabaleta and actually play Federer in the third round, which would be a nice matchup. Philippoussis, Nalbandian, you can bet that Federer does not want to see Nalbandian, beaten him four times in a row, Federer has never beaten him. So he would love to see anybody but Nalbandian in the round of 16, including Philippoussis who he just dismantled in the Wimbledon final. Philippoussis I think is an outside threat, but now that I see his draw, I think it's going to be much tougher for him to go all the way. It's a little harder on the hard courts because of he knee issues he's had. And then you have Moya. Moya is a guy who has played very well on fast courts at times. He's not played well this summer on the hard court at all. But he's got a good draw. Scott Draper, the Australian, is talented but Moya has got to like where he is. The seeds in his section should really not bother him. If Moya can get through to the quarters, that wouldn't surprise me. You know, look, it's almost impossible to predict the men much more so than the women, obviously, but coming in, my favorite is Roddick. The next two would be Federer and Agassi, and based on what I see in the draw, I think it's a tougher draw for Federer. I think he's got a very tough road. So we'll see mentally how tough he is. We know what he can do with his racquet. The Open is more of a test mentally than any of the other Slams, I think. It's tough, it's hot, the New York conditions, best-of-five, it's very rare that someone sneaks through and get to the finals of the Open. Nobody sneaks through and wins a US Open on the men's side. That just hasn't happened, as has happened, Thomas Johansson wins the Australian or different clay court guys winning the French. It never happens at the Open. So I think here, it's set up to be a great tournament because obviously we are going to miss Pete, but he has not played at all, so it's not like he's been a factor this year. I think that Agassi sees that this is if not his last chance, certainly one of his last couple chances to win. I think here and the Australian are his two best chances, anyway. And I think he senses that the Federers and the Roddicks are coming up and are ready to take over. He would love to get to that, I think, magic number, of 10 majors. He'll never admit it, but I think if he could get to double digits in majors won, he's at eight now, that puts him with one of the all-time greats, which he already is, but just puts him as a higher level. That would be it for the men. If anyone has any questions, happy to answer them. If not, it's lunchtime.

PATRICK McENROE: No. I think he'll win the match. I think it's best-of-five. I think he's got a lot of confidence. It's a great first round. He could lose. I mean, there's not that many guys that I would say going in that could beat him in a first-round match, particularly with 32 seeds. I don't think that that's going to happen. To me, it doesn't take away from the bigger picture, which is I still think he's a favorite to win the tournament. As I said, if he beats Henman, he's got a pretty good draw after that.

PATRICK McENROE: Well, I think that obviously since he's been working with Brad Gilbert, Brad has helped him a lot. I think that mentally, he's a lot more focused. He's not getting rattled by mistakes that he makes or things that goes on on the court. Technically, he's improved his return serve and his back happened pass, which are things that really got exploited here last year when he played Sampras so he's improved that. And he's just playing -- he's got more composure. He's playing with a lot more composure. I think Brad has really helped him with that, helped him with his strategy, with doing what you have to do to win on that day and taking advantage of what his big weapons are. I also think physically he's in better shape much he's stronger. He's moving very well. And obviously in his serve and his forehand, he's got two of the biggest shots in the game.

PATRICK McENROE: I think you have to try to enjoy it. You have to enjoy what the whole US Open is about, what New York is about, playing on the biggest stage, the biggest city in the world. I think the guy that personifies that was Stefan Edberg. He hated it, the first couple years and he's this mild-mannered Swede and quiet and very reserved and did not like to stay in the City was too much stress for him, driving back and forth. By the end of his career, he loved it. He ate it up. He loved the whole energy and the atmosphere. I think that you have to expect whether it's going to be hot, sometimes it gets quite windy out there. As I said, just getting back and forth, we have all been caught in New York midtown tunnel traffic at times. It's not like that at a lot of the other tournaments. So I think that you have to have the right mind set. If your mentality is you're going to let it bother you, it's going to bother you. You have to just enjoy what it is, what New York is all about, what the US Open is all about. We grew up here, so of course, my bother loved it. He took the subway to school every day. He was used to it. That's why I used Edberg as an example because he wasn't used to it and he got himself into it to where he was able to win here.

PATRICK McENROE: I don't think she's done it yet because I don't know if she's mean enough, wants it enough. I think maybe she's starting to get ticked off enough that people saying that, that maybe she'll want it more. She clearly didn't show up for the final in Paris, but she's clearly a tremendous player. Look, you don't get to be where she is by not being a competitor. It's just a question of the different level of how much you want and when you get to that -- to be one of the best in the world. And if you look at someone like a Lendl, in his career, early in his career, he had trouble winning the big one. Look, the more times you knock on the door, at some point, you're going to win it. I just think that -- I just think that she's going to realize that she doesn't want to hear all this anymore and when she does get to this point she's going to do it. Couple of floaters, on the women's side, Sharapova is one. To be honest, there aren't that many. I mean, let's be honest, on the women's side, it's much more predictable. Petrova, I mean, can you call Petrova a dark horse? I mean she's been in the semis at the French. There aren't that many. I mean, I could pretty much go to the bank on who is going to be in the quarters and semis. That's just a reality. On the men's side, you can't do that.

ALAN KANTARIAN: Patrick, thank you very much. Your knowledge of both the men and the women is astonishingly complete and we appreciate that. For those of you who didn't notice, Patrick for two years as a member of the board of the directors of the USTA, a major contributor there, and has been a major contributor to the team spirit that exists in our young Davis Cup team and obviously a very successful commentator. So thank you very much for taking time out of a busy schedule, Patrick. You were excellent. (Applause). Vijay, thank you so much for having us here. I must tell you that the turn out is just wonderful. It's nice to see a roomful of tennis media that know the game. And all I can tell you is that from a USTA point of view in terms of having a successful tournament, those first to days are going to be nervous between Agassi playing Corretja and Henman playing Roddick, and Blake has a tough match at the same time. So let's hope this same day a week from now, all three of them are still in. Thanks very much for attending. You've been a great audience.