NEW YORK -- They still have some unfinished business at the U.S. Open but French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero and Carlos Moya already know their next assignments -- playing singles for Spain in the upcoming Davis Cup.
Ferrero, seeded No. 3, and Moya, No. 7, are both in the fourth round at the Open. They were picked Tuesday by coaches Juan Avendano and Josep Perlas to play singles against Argentina in the Davis Cup semifinals in Malaga, Sept. 19-21. Albert Costa and Alex Corretja will play doubles, according to Spanish news reports.
The same Spanish team beat Belgium and Croatia.
In the semifinals the Spanish team will face Argentina's Guillermo Coria, Gaston Gaudio, David Nalbandian and Agustin Calleri. Like Argentina's men, the Spanish team is made up of clay-court players.
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MUST STAY FOCUSED: Stefano Capriati doesn't have to concern himself with helping his star daughter stay alert when the weather wreaks havoc on a tennis tournament's schedule the way it has at the U.S. Open.
"They stay focused themselves," he said of Jennifer and the other players. "They're athletes, they know. The young girls, you tell them. They need to try to keep quiet and relax and rest. Or go in the gym and train. Don't eat too much."
On Monday, Jennifer Capriati survived three rain delays on the way to defeating hard-serving Russian Elena Dementieva 6-2, 7-5 to reach the quarterfinals for the third straight year.
"Jen is in the hotel resting," he said Tuesday. "She does a few things there. Yesterday was 12 hours. We got here at 9:30 and left at 9:30. That's a long day for anyone. She's not scheduled to play, but she's on standby."
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RAINING ON THEIR PARADE: The Bryan brothers -- Bob and Mike -- have dealt with long delays before. They had a three-day rain delay at Wimbledon in 1999, and left the court on serve in the fifth set. They wound up losing 10-8.
"We've had this plenty of times," Mike said as the twins wandered the halls in the main stadium Tuesday. "You've got to keep your legs loose. There's nothing you can do."
The Bryans arrived at the National Tennis Center at 9 a.m. Monday and waited until 10 p.m. before leaving. They did get to hit for 20 minutes. They were back at 9 Tuesday morning, too.
"We've been upstairs doing e-mails and cards," Bob said. "My dad brought my keyboard."
They originally were set to play their third-round match against Chris Haggard and Donald Johnson in Louis Armstrong Stadium but had the match moved to the outer courts.
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ALL WET: After sitting through two days of rain, Martina Navratilova wonders why there's no roof over any of the courts at the National Tennis Center.
"We've been talking about covers since the '80s," she said. "Yesterday, they spent more time drying the courts than it rained. It's like, when are they going to learn? We have no say on it. Yesterday, it was two hours of play, six hours of drying."
Arlen Kantarian, the USTA's chief executive for professional tennis, said a roof is not in the stadium's immediate future. "It is not in the plans today," he said. "But we would never say never."
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MEMORIES: Tennis greats Ivan Lendl, Monica Seles and Billie Jean King remember the thrills of playing -- and winning -- the U.S. Open.
"If you like noise and confusion and hoopla and fun and just a lot of noise pollution, then New York's where you want to be," four-time winner King told a crowd gathered at Rockefeller Plaza.
Seles, a two-time U.S. Open winner sidelined this year due to a stress fracture, agreed, saying "the best crowd is definitely the U.S. Open. It's the most noisiest, they know their tennis and they really just get into it."
Lendl said he enjoyed playing even when the crowd was less than supportive.
"I always felt you draw from the crowd no matter what," said Lendl, who won the Open in 1985, 1986 and 1987.
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