NEW YORK -- Russian tennis star Anna Kournikova will miss her third Grand Slam tournament of the year. Kournikova withdrew from the 2001 U.S. Open on Monday because of lingering problems with a stress fracture in her left foot that she suffered in February.

	Martina Hingis is awarded the top seed at Flushing Meadows for the fourth consecutive year.

Kournikova was seeded 19th. As a result of her withdrawal, all of the women's seeds below 20 will move up with Cristina Torrens Valero of Spain taking the No. 32 spot.

Three-time French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten and women's world No. 1 Martina Hingis were installed as top seeds.

Brazilian Kuerten, who has never been past the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows, is the first South American man to be seeded first at the U.S. Championships since Ecuadorian Pancho Segura in 1944.

Hingis, 20, who is still seeking her first Grand Slam title since the 1999 Australian Open, is the women's top seed at the U.S. Open for the fourth consecutive year.

She won her lone U.S. Open singles crown in 1997 and has twice been runner-up.

Two-time U.S. Open champion and 2001 Australian Open winner Andre Agassi was named men's second seed behind 24-year-old Kuerten, while reigning Australian and French Open champion Jennifer Capriati will be the women's second seed -- her highest career seeding at the Open.

Thanks to the expanded seeding system, young American Andy Roddick is seeded in a Grand Slam tournament for the first time. The 18-year-old American, who won his first hardcourt title Sunday at Washington, is seeded 18th.

Lindsay Davenport, the 1998 women's champion and last year's runner-up, will be the third seed.

Venus Williams, aiming to capture both the Wimbledon and the U.S. Open titles for the second consecutive year, was seeded fourth in the women's draw.

Following Wimbledon's lead, the U.S. Open has expanded to 32 seeds for both the men and women, allowing the likes of rising American star Andy Roddick to be seeded (18th).

The United States Tennis Association said in a release that the 32 seeds better reflects the depth of the men's and the women's games, while rewarding the top players for their performance over the past 52 weeks.

"Sixteen seeds wasn't a magic number," said USTA president Merv Heller. "There are still going to be great matches the first week."

Unlike Wimbledon, where officials take a player's past results on grass into account in determining seedings, seeds for the U.S. Open went strictly according to WTA Tour rankings for the women and the ATP Entry System for the men.

That left four-time champion and last year's runner-up Pete Sampras, who has not won a tournament since lifting the 2000 Wimbledon trophy, seeded only 10th. That marks the lowest seeding for the five-time top seed since he was seeded 12th in 1990 -- the year he captured his first U.S. Open crown.

Defending men's champion Marat Safin of Russia will be seeded third, with Australian Lleyton Hewitt, a semifinalist last year, fourth.

Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero, who bowed out in the fourth round last year in his best U.S. Open showing, was seeded fifth, just ahead of Australian Patrick Rafter, the 1997 and 1998 champion.

Other prominent men's seeds include former French and Australian Open champion and Olympic gold medallist Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia at seventh and reigning Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic at 15th.

Rounding out the women's top five was French Open runner-up Kim Clijsters of Belgium, who is seeded at the U.S. Open for the first time.

Belgian Justine Henin, another seeding newcomer to Flushing Meadows, was sixth, just ahead of 1991 and '92 champion Monica Seles.

Serena Williams, the 1999 champion, was seeded only 10th. But Williams placed herself firmly among the top title contenders by capturing the Canadian Open on Sunday with impressive victories over Seles and Capriati.