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Week at a glance
Posted: Monday January 03, 2000 07:58 PM
Speaking"I want to get in the top 10 by the end of July and win Wimbledon. I have a busy schedule ahead of me and it will be a great year." - Alexandra Stevenson . "Anna is a very friendly person and I know that she has many friends among other athletes." -- Alexei Selivanenko , Anna Kournikova's Moscow-based agent, about the tennis star's relationship with hockey winger Pavel Bure. "Now everyone - official or player - can serve without prejudice the interests of the Davis Cup team." -- Boris Becker , after the three-time Wimbledon champion resigned as coach of Germany's Davis Cup team. "The trauma that goes with losing your wife hasn't gone away too much, but I'm definitely going to go back to tennis. It's just a matter of how quickly." -- Scott Draper , who has received a wild card to the Australian Open.
SwitchRussian tennis star Anna Kournikova, ranked No. 1 in the world in doubles, reportedly has switched hockey players. According to a Moscow newspaper, Kournikova has dropped Sergei Fedorov for his former teammate Pavel Bure. Kournikova's agent, however, warns against reading too much into the fact that the 18-year-old Kournikova has been seen with Bure a lot recently. Daily Soviet Sport says Kournikova has recently begun dating Bure and that the Florida Panthers winger has bought a condominium in the same apartment building as Kournikova in a Miami suburb.
Stepping AsideBoris Becker has resigned as coach of Germany's Davis Cup squad. The three-time Wimbledon champion had been Davis Cup coach since October 1997, but his reign was marked by a feud with Nicolas Kiefer, ranked No. 1 in Germany and sixth in the world, who now is expected to return to the team.
Scott's ReturnScott Draper is returning to tennis circuit. He was awarded a wild card into next month's Australian Open, confirming the end to his self-imposed exile from the circuit. He had stopped playing when his wife, Kellie, died on July 19 of cystic fibrosis just 19 months after they were married.
Switching PartnersIndia's Leander Paes and Sebastien Lareau of Canada will team up together in the Australian Open later this month. Paes, ranked No. 1 in the world in doubles, and countryman Mahesh Bhupathi won the Australian Open and French Open and reached the final at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open last year. But Paes changed partners while Bhupathi is sidelined with a shoulder injury.
Straight InAustralians Mark Woodforde, James Sekulov, Scott Draper and Todd Woodbridge have been awarded wild cards into the singles main draw of the Australian Open. They join Australians Dejan Petrovic and Joseph Sirianni, who were earlier awarded wild cards into the year's first Grand Slam tournament.
SidelinedLindsay Davenport has been forced to skip an exhibition tournament in Hong Kong because of illness. The world's second-ranked player was due to play in the Millennium Cup in a field including top-ranked Martina Hingis, but pulled out with a chest infection, according to organizers. Her place in the eight-player field was filled by American Chanda Rubin. Others in the field are the French duo of Mary Pierce and Sandrine Testud and Americans Mary Joe Fernandez and Jennifer Capriati.
SeriousTennis great Don Budge, injured in a car accident in the Pocono Mountains, has been improving daily and has had his condition upgraded from critical to serious. He 'seems increasingly alert,' said hospital spokesman Jon Wojciechowski. Budge, 84, drove off the road on Dec. 14 near Milford, Pa., and was airlifted to St. Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., where he has been treated in the coronary care unit.
South African InWayne Ferreira of South Africa received the eighth and final berth in the Kooyong Classic, an exhibition tournament prior to the Australian Open. Ranked 53rd in the world, Ferreira joins Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Mark Philippoussis, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Thomas Enqvist, Nicolas Kiefer and Richard Krajicek in the round-robin tournament, which will be held Jan. 12-15.
Seles Drops OutWhen Monica Seles and Justin Gimelstob withdrew from the Hopman Cup mixed teams tennis tournament, they were replaced by the top U.S. college player, James Blake, and 19-year-old Alexandra Stevenson, who last year became the first woman qualifier to reach the Wimbledon semifinals. Seles pulled out of the exhibition with a fractured foot, while Gimelstob was suffering from a back injury.
Still UndecidedMartina Hingis is not sure if she wants to play in the Sydney Olympic Games later this year. Hingis, who will be seeking her fourth consecutive Australian Open title later this month, said September's Olympics are too far away for her to think about them right now.
Tournaments This Week
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