Injuries Force Sampras, Graf Out Of Competition

The Olympic tennis competition lost two of its top contenders for gold-medal honors in the space of a single afternoon Tuesday when not only Pete Sampras, the world’s No.1-ranked male player, but also Sampras’ counterpart at the head of the women’s game, Germany’s Steffi Graf, withdrew because of injuries.

Each player had been the head of their respective nation’s singles delegation, and each is considered unreplaceable - although replacements will be sought.

Sampras blamed his withdrawal on a new injury, an inflamed Achilles’ tendon in his right leg.

Graf traced hers to the same nagging knee problem that forced her to withdraw from Eastbourne, her Wimbledon warmup event, and bothered her throughout her successful title defense at Wimbledon earlier this month.

An American substitute was not selected, but the American men’s team remains strong with Andre Agassi, MaliVai Washington - who lost to Krajicek in the Wimbledon final - and Richey Reneberg.

Both Graf and Sampras are expected to be healthy for the U.S. Open, which begins Aug. 26.

Wrestling with time

Last Wednesday, the U.S. Olympic wrestling team finally ordered uniforms from Matman, DePrenger’s wrestling gear manufacturing firm in Lakewood, Wash. And all his seamstresses were on vacation.

They returned to work Monday, and DePrenger said they’d have no trouble filling the order - they can produce 400-600 uniforms a day.

“We’ve had to stop everything and do these suits,” DePrenger said, “but we’re not complaining.”

Matman also supplied uniforms for the 1988 and 1992 U.S. Olympic squads.

Compared with the Barcelona uniform four years ago, which featured a straight American flag across the chest of a blue singlet, the Atlanta version is more dynamic.

“I tried to make it look like the flag was waving,” said Ronnie Billingsley, Matman’s designer and sewing supervisor, “like the wind blows and the flag moves.”

A sneak peek

It’s not every day that 22,373 paying customers show up to watch gymnastics, let alone a gymnastics practice. But the crowd at the Georgia Dome was at full volume Tuesday afternoon as the U.S. women’s team went through its first full workout at the Olympic arena.

“This feels like an Olympic competition,” said Mary Lou Retton, one of the spectators. “Just amazing.”

The U.S. team treated the practice session like a mock competition, warming up, marching out and going through its routines just as it will Sunday when the official team compulsories begin.

“We’re the only team to do it this way,” said Bela Karolyi, whose wife, Martha, is the Olympic head coach this time. “We made it like a dress rehearsal. It’s a visualization, what we call modeling.”

Dominique Moceanu and Shannon Miller turned in model performances during the workout. “It’s almost 100 percent,” said Miller, the 1992 Olympian who has been nursing tendinitis in her left wrist. “It’s sore every now and then. I know I’ll be ready.”

Weather update

The forecast for Friday’s opening ceremony is an Atlanta classic: high in the 90s. Saturday and Sunday will be partly cloudy with scattered afternoon and evening thunderstorms and a high temperature in the 90s. Low temperatures each night will be in the 70s.