NEW YORK -- The weather was totally uncooperative with the television networks covering the U.S. Open on Monday.
CBS went on the air at noon, planning six hours of coverage. In between rain delays, the network got in just four games of Jennifer Capriati's match against Elena Dementieva.
Ten minutes after CBS went off the air, Capriati and Dementieva resumed their match. They played until 7 p.m., just when USA Network's evening coverage went on the air, before rain interrupted play again.
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TICKET POLICY: The USTA announced that it will honor tickets for Monday's rain-plagued day session of the U.S. Open for day sessions on either Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. Out-of-town visitors can exchange the tickets for next year's tournament.
Tickets purchased at the U.S. Open box office or through Ticketmaster may be exchanged at the box office for any of the three day sessions.
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HURRY-UP SCHEDULE: Monday's rain forced a postponement of top-seeded Andre Agassi's match against Taylor Dent. The match was rescheduled for Tuesday and placed the 33-year-old Agassi in the position of having to win four matches in six days if he is to capture a ninth Grand Slam title. Pete Sampras did that last year.
Agassi had been critical of the decision to stop his third-round match against Yevgeny Kafelnikov after just one set on Saturday, forcing him to complete it on Sunday and face the prospect of playing three straight days. Monday's rain allowed him to avoid that but created a potential schedule jam later in the week.
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LONG DAY'S MATCH: Jennifer Capriati's match against Elena Dementieva was supposed to start at 12:45 Monday. It was raining then and when she finally got on the court, Capriati managed to get in four games before it started raining again.
There was another rain delay in the evening and by the time her 6-2, 7-5 victory was complete it was well after 8 p.m. -- nearly eight hours after its scheduled start for a match with an elapsed time of 1 hour, 12 minutes.
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HONORING CHANG: Michael Chang, who retired after his first-round loss at the U.S. Open, will be honored by the USTA on Tuesday night between matches at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Chang played for 16 years and was the youngest winner of a Grand Slam event when he won the French Open in 1989 at the age of 17. Two years earlier, he was the youngest player ever to win a match at the U.S. Open.
Chang won 34 career singles titles and was runner-up in three other Slams -- the 1995 French Open, the 1996 Australian Open and 1996 U.S. Open.
The USTA held a similar ceremony honoring Pete Sampras on the first night of the Open.
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