Notebook

Top seeds win boys and girls titles

NEW YORK (AP) -- Richard Gasquet of France came into the junior boys' singles tournament as the top-seeded player and left it as the champion. He beat Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 7-5, 6-2 on Sunday.

The top-seeded junior girl, Barbora Strycova, wasn't as successful, losing to 12th-seeded Maria Kirillenko 6-4, 6-4.

In the junior girls' doubles final, Elke Clijsters and Kirsten Flipkens beat Shadisha Robinson and Tory Zawacki 6-1, 6-3. In the men's 45-and-over doubles, Mansour Bahrami and Gene Mayer beat Brian Gottfried and Raul Ramirez 7-6 (3), 4-6, 7-6 (5).

Fewer viewers

Serena Williams' 6-4, 6-3 victory over older sister Venus got a 7.2 overnight rating on CBS. That's 6 percent off the 7.7 rating last year, when Venus won in the first Open women's final broadcast in prime time.

The sisters have played each other in the finals of the last three Grand Slam tournaments, and four of the last five, with Serena winning each time.

The men's semifinals Saturday afternoon, won by Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, averaged a 4.2 rating, which was 50 percent higher than in 2001.

Serena's strength

Her 53 aces were more than twice as many as Venus, who finished second with 26.

The tournament's primary sponsor, JP Morgan Chase, donates $50 for each ace in the event to the firm's Tennis Camps for Girls, a free program providing tennis instruction for 150 New York City girls.

Serena also had the most aces the past three years -- 62 in 1999 when she won, 45 in 2000 and 50 last year.

Rounding out the top five this year are semifinalist Amelie Mauresmo with 25, Bea Bielek with 22 and Lindsay Davenport with 20.

A total of 565 aces were served in the women's singles tournament, for a total donation of $28,250.

 

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