NOTEBOOK | U.S. Open

Three in championships: Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin-Hardenne and Serena Williams are the first three qualifiers for the season-ending WTA Tour Championships set for Nov. 5-10 in Los Angeles. Clijsters, ranked No. 1, won the WTA Tour Championship last year. She has won six titles and reached the semifinals or better at 14 of 15 events this season to overtake Williams for the top spot in the rankings. She is seeking her first Grand Slam title at the U.S. Open. Henin-Hardenne is ranked No. 3 and won six titles including the French Open this season. She reached at least the quarterfinals in all 13 of her tournaments leading up to the U.S. Open. Williams, ranked No. 2, won the Australian and Wimbledon championships and was a semifinalist at the French Open. She is recuperating from knee surgery that prevented her from defending her U.S. Open championship. Five more players will be added to fill the field.Andre's milestone: Andre Agassi's victory over Taylor Dent was the 200th of his Grand Slam career. He is fourth on the all-time list, trailing Jimmy Connors (233), Ivan Lendl (222) and Pete Sampras (203). The win over Dent put Agassi in the Open quarterfinals. Three more wins would give him his ninth Grand Slam title and tie him with Sampras.Doubles dollars: No woman has earned more money playing singles tennis this year than Serena Williams ,who has made $2,136,835. But Kim Clijsters, who overtook Williams for the No. 1 ranking, also leads her in total money with $2,322,940. The difference comes from Clijsters' doubles income. She's made $382,105 in those events compared to $112,478 in doubles for Williams.On a roll: Argentine David Nalbandian, seeded No. 13, is looking forward to his round-of-16 match with second-seeded Roger Federer at the U.S. Open. That's because he's never lost to the Wimbledon champion. Nalbandian ran his career record against Federer to 4-0 when he beat him last month in Cincinnati. Earlier in the year, he defeated Federer at the Australian Open. What's more, Nalbandian played Federer in the U.S. Open junior boys championship in 1998 and beat him in that match, too.