Pierce Drops Out; No. 2 Is Taken Out

A recent trend of big-name tennis players unable to play consecutive weeks on the WTA or ATP tours is threatening to spiral into an epidemic.

It has become increasingly common for players winning or advancing far into tournaments to pull out of subsequent events, claiming injury or otherwise.

Andre Agassi, who won at UCLA two weeks ago, dropped out of last week’s event at Washington, saying he needed rest. Venus Williams, who reached the final at Stanford last month, withdrew from an event at Stockholm, citing flu.

Mary Pierce, who won Sunday at Carlsbad, continued the trend Wednesday when she pulled out of the JPMorgan Chase Open at the Home Depot Center.

Pierce, scheduled to play Tathiana Garbin of Italy in a second-round match after drawing a first-round bye, said she suffered a strained right thigh Tuesday in practice and, “It’s something that needs rest.”

Seeded sixth, the Frenchwoman was the fifth highly ranked player to pull out of the Carson event, joining defending champion Lindsay Davenport, Serena Williams, Vera Zvonareva and Elena Likhovtseva.

By the end of the day, second-seeded Svetlana Kutznetsova was gone too, but the reigning U.S. Open champion had no injury to blame.

She was upset by unseeded Eleni Daniilidou of Greece, 6-4, 6-4.

“I just can’t get my rhythm, I can’t get my game,” said Kutznetsova, who lost in the third round last week and hasn’t won a tournament since late September. “I’ve just been horrible. ... I can’t keep playing like this.”

Fifth-seeded Kim Clijsters of Belgium, playing for the third consecutive week after winning at Stanford and reaching the semifinals at Carlsbad, needed only 54 minutes to beat Karolina Sprem of Croatia, 6-2, 6-1, earlier in the evening session.

Other seeded players advancing included No. 3 Elena Dementieva of Russia, who defeated Samantha Stosur of Australia, 6-4, 6-3; and No. 4 Nadia Petrova of Russia, who overcame a strained right elbow and a distracting preoccupation with two chatty women in the top row to eliminate Jill Craybas, 6-3, 6-1.

Top-seeded Maria Sharapova, idle Wednesday, will be joined by four countrywomen in the round of 16 as she continues her bid to become the first Russian woman to reach No. 1. She must at least reach the semifinals to gain the top ranking.

The only American left in the field among a group of nine that started the tournament is unseeded Lisa Raymond, a 2-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 winner over Aiko Nakamura of Japan.

Pierce, enjoying a career resurgence after a long list of injuries dropped her to No. 130 in the world at the end of 2001, said she first felt pain in her right thigh while practicing serves at the end of a workout.

“I’m really disappointed because I feel like I’m playing really well and I was looking forward to hopefully continuing my performance of last week into this week,” said Pierce, whose victory Sunday over Ai Sugiyama gave the two-time Grand Slam event winner her first title in more than a year. “Unfortunately, I’m not able to serve, and if this is something that gets worse I could be out for awhile.”

Pierce, who reached the French Open final in May and has won 16 of her last 18 matches, said she would go home to Sarasota, Fla., for three or four days before deciding whether to play next week at Toronto.

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U.S. Open series

With Mary Pierce, above, dropping out of the JPMorgan Chase Open, she loses the opportunity to increase her lead in the U.S. Open series point standings, the top three of whom will be eligible to win bonus money at the U.S. Open. The standings heading into this week’s tournament:

*--* Player, Country Points 1. Mary Pierce, France 100 2. Kim Clijsters, Belgium 75 3. Ai Sugiyama, Japan 70 4. Patty Schnyder, Switzerland 47 5. Akiko Morigami, Japan 45 5. Shuai Peng, China 45 7. Venus Williams, United States 35 8. Nathalie Dechy, France 27 8. Jelena Jankovic, Serbia & Mont. 27 10. Anna Chakvetadze, Russia 25 10. Sesil Karatantcheva, Bulgaria 25

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Featured matches

Today on Stadium Court at the JPMorgan Chase Open at the Home Depot Center in Carson:

Starting at 11 a.m.: Varvara Lepchenko, Uzbekistan, vs. Francesca Schiavone, Italy; Kim Clijsters, Belgium, vs. Dinara Safina, Russia; Maria Sharapova, Russia, vs. Anna Chakvetadze, Russia; Conchita Martinez, Spain, vs. Eleni Daniilidou, Greece.

* Starting at 7 p.m.: Elena Dementieva, Russia, vs. Marion Bartoli, France; Kateryna Bondarenko, Ukraine, vs. Daniela Hantuchova, Slovakia.