Stars Come Out Tuesday in LA, Washington, Sopot, San Diego

ATP REVIEW/PREVIEW
Monday was scrub day at Washington, with no seeds in action but plenty of fringe interest with both wildcarded Bryan brothers advancing in singles (Mike d. (WC)Carlson, Bob d. (WC)Delic), qualifier Thomas "Brother Of" Blake losing to Ivo "Former Hingis Boyfriend" Heuberger, and new daddy Todd Martin losing to Aussie vet Scott Draper. "It felt good to be up a set before the rain came," said Bob, who weathered the rain delay to beat the NCAA champion Delic. "I knew I needed to have a little luck returning his serve. I was serving very well and that helped take the pressure off. I expected a tough match against him and I knew it was going to be a serving duel." Bob will next face Andy Roddick, who he plays in singles and doubles. "I'm going to go out there and have fun. He's favored and I don't have high expectations for me. He's going to be favored in singles but we'll be favored in doubles." Nicolas Massu, who reached the Kitzbuhel final and won the Amersfoort title in the past two weeks, forfeited his place in the Washington draw after encountering visa difficulties while trying to enter the U.S. (need to shave before boarding the plane, get rid of the Chilean terrorist look). Due to rain, four singles matches were postponed until today in Crabb-Enqvist, Moodie-Saulnier, Delgado-Benneteau, and Roitman-Luczak.

On a REAL slow Monday at LA, U.S. junior standout Alex Bogomolov Jr. beat Ricardo Mello, with other winners Vacek (d. K.Kim), Taino (d. H.-T. Lee), and Carlsen (d. (WC)Reynolds) advancing, and wildcard Michael Joyce leading fellow American Jan-Mike Gambill 5-5, 40-30 when rain suspended play for the day.

Sopot was a wash-out on Monday, so today sees all eight seeds taking to the court, including ATP Champions Race leader Juan Carlos Ferrero. "I was leading the ATP Champions Race the week after Roland Garros,so this is the second time now," Ferrero said. "I think that I can play well on both hardcourts and clay courts. I proved that last year, playing in final of the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, winning an ATP event in Hong Kong and playing some good tournaments, like the semifinals in Cincinnati or the quarterfinals in Madrid. I'm not only able to play on claycourts like some say. Finishing this year as a No. 1? Why not? I just have to play consistent tennis."

Seeds in action today at Washington are (1)Agassi vs. Heuberger, Carraz vs. (6)Blake, (14)Rusedski vs. Miranda, Draper vs. (11)Fish, Kim vs. (7)Mirnyi, and (9)Clement vs. Burgsmuller. Seeds on court today in Sopot are (WC)Fyrstenberg vs. (7)Hrbaty, (3)Coria vs. Hanescu, (1)Ferrero vs. (WC)Dabrowski, Portas vs. (2)Moya in an all-Spanish meeting, (6)Sanchez vs. Norman, Rosset vs. (4)Nalbandian, (5)Volandri vs. Puerta, and Voinea vs. (8)Mutis. In LA the seeds in play will be (3)Schalken vs. (Q)Golovanov (who is Marat Safin's full-time coach), (5)Philippoussis vs. Kennedy, (2)Grosjean vs. Malisse, (4)Kuerten vs. Niemeyer, (1)Hewitt vs. Mamiit, (7)Ferreira vs. (Q)Yim, (6)Safin vs. (WC)P.Amritraj, and (8)Spadea vs. Gimelstob.

WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
Top-seeded Serena Williams pulled from San Diego Monday night, her second consecutive tournament withdrawal due to a left knee injury. That was the biggest surprise on a Monday which featured only scrub matches, with four qualifiers and two wildcards exiting the premises, and American players posting a 1-4 record.
In Sopot all main draw matches were washed out by rain yesterday. Today the seeds take the court in San Diego, with matches featuring Serna vs. Dokic, Frazier vs. Davenport, Rubin vs. Pisnik, Henin-Hardenne vs. Daniilidou, Shaughnessy vs. Bartoli, Srebotnik vs. Cho, Petrova vs. Mikaelian, Schett vs. Raymond, Krasnoroutskaya vs. Obata, and Husarova vs. Schiavone. On court today in Sopot are Nagyova vs. Pistolesi, Talaja vs. Domachowska, Safina vs. Sakowicz, Benesova vs. Sprem, Kurhajcova vs. Medina Garrigues, Chladkova vs. Cohen-Aloro, and An.Serra Zanetti vs. Barna.

2003 SINGLES TITLE LEADERS (through July 27)
5--Kim Clijsters (BEL)
5--Roger Federer (SUI)
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4--Andre Agassi (USA)
4--Guillermo Coria (ARG)
4--Justine Henin-Hardenne (BEL)
4--Serena Williams (USA)
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3--Juan Carlos Ferrero (ESP)
3--Carlos Moya (ESP)
3--Andy Roddick (USA)

2003 DOUBLES TEAM TITLE LEADERS (through July 27)
5--K.Clijsters/A.Sugiyama (BEL/JPN)
5--M.Knowles/D.Nestor (BAH/CAN)
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3--B.Bryan/M.Bryan (USA)
3--S.Kuznetsova/M.Navratilova (RUS/USA)

NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES, AND BARBS
This week's WTA stop in Sopot features only seven of the Top 50 players -- Challengers get better showings than that, time to drop a bomb on that event...American doubles No. 1 Bob Bryan on the pros and cons of having a twin as your doubles partner: "When we get our stuff done, it is like magic sometimes. But it is also a disadvantage because sometimes we bring the brotherly crap onto the court. Say I take the shirt he wants to wear for the match, and we argue about that onto stadium court one night. That is not good. It's not as professional as it could be, but it's also got some serious advantages."...Bob Bryan says he and his brother Mike folded on supporting a boycott after their clothing company pressured them: "Our agent came up to us and said that was in violation of our clothing and racket contract, so we kind of got off of that."...Bucs receiver Keyshawn Johnson has done his share of following around "friend" Serena Williams this year, attending the Open Gaz de France in Paris in February, then the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, S.C., in April, and two weeks ago at Wimbledon: "As far as our friendship goes, I think we understand each other in a very, very strong way," Johnson told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "The demands, the competition -- all of that. That's why we're friends, and we're good friends because we both have similar professions. Obviously, she's bigger than I am, and we both, as friends, understand that." Not going to touch that bigger-than comment, sorry...Jan-Mike Gambill showed some rare personality last week at Indy in discussing the potential slam boycott: "Do I want to boycott one of the Slams? No," he said. "Maybe the French Open. Nothing against the French people, but I just don't play well in that Slam."...The ATP reported that Juan Carlos Ferrero could take over No. 1 from Andre Agassi if he won the Sopot title, but then re-did the math and realized they were wrong -- stone...The Brits don't have a player ranked in the Top 40...Yevgeny Kafelnikov said the potential slam boycott is "not about the money," which is like Kobayashi saying "It's not about the hot dogs"...Andre Agassi says his generation of No. 1s in himself, Pete Sampras, Jim Courier, and Michael Chang who reached No. 2 in the world will be tough to follow: "What's Andy Roddick, five in the world? That's No. 5 on the planet, that's a pretty good effort. But if you're used to No. 1, it's going to have to be more. Getting to the semis of Wimbledon, only four guys do it, and he was one of them. If your expectation is to win Wimbledon, then it was a disappointing result."...Alex Bogomolov will join Alex Kim and Jeff Morrison on the U.S. team competing in the Pan American Games this month in the Dominican Republic...The WTA Tour kicked off a new media interview system at the Acura Classic on Monday, the "All-Access Hour" involves making the top seeds available for media roundtable interviews for one hour at the start of all WTA Tour Tier I and II tournaments, as well as the Grand Slams, in an effort to increase media access to the tour's top players.