MELBOURNE, Australia -- Lleyton Hewitt and Jennifer Capriati
will be the top-seeded players for next week's Australian Open.
Hewitt, ranked No. 1 and the U.S. Open champion, has been
sidelined since withdrawing from the Hopman Cup last week with
chicken pox.
Capriati was elevated to the top seeding Wednesday after No. 1
Lindsay Davenport withdrew because of a knee injury.
Australian Open organizers use world rankings in determining
seedings.
Hewitt is the first Australian to be seeded first since Ken
Rosewall in 1976, the last year an Australian (Mark Edmonson) won
the title.
Brazil's Gustavo Kuerten was seeded second, followed by
defending champion Andre Agassi, who is vying to become only the
third man to win three consecutive Australian Opens.
Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero, seeded
No. 5, withdrew from the major tournament
Thursday because of a knee injury.
Switzerland's Ivo Heuberger took Ferrero's spot in the main draw
and France's Sebastian Grosjean moved from sixth to fifth in the
seedings.
Pete Sampras, who has two Australian Opens among his 13 Grand
Slam titles, was seeded ninth.
Capriati won her first Grand Slam title at the 2001 Australian
Open and added the French Open title to finish the year ranked No.
2. She lost to Alexandra Stevenson at the Adidas International on
Wednesday in her only Australian tuneup.
Under the new 32-seed system being used in Melbourne for the
first time, the first and fourth seeded players will be in the same
half of the draw. The second and third seeded players will be on
the other side of the draw.
Venus Williams, who won the Wimbledon and U.S. Open and was a
semifinalist in Australia last year, is the second-seeded woman.
She is followed by three-time Australian Open champion Martina
Hingis, Kim Clijsters and Serena Williams.
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