Rafter to miss Australian Open

Pat Rafter's break from tennis was made official on Wednesday when he was the only man in the ATP's top 100 not confirmed for January's Australian Open.

The two-time US Open winner is taking an indefinite break from the sport while he recovers from a persistent shoulder injury which caused him to miss the deciding match of the Davis Cup final earlier in December.

Rafter watched from the sidelines as last minute replacement Wayne Arthurs lost to Nicolas Escude in four sets.

Rafter's former Davis Cup team-mate Mark Philippoussis, who is returning from a knee injury, is a confirmed starter for the January 14-27 event in Melbourne.

Philippoussis joins Australians Wayne Arthurs, Andrew Ilie and world number one Lleyton Hewitt in attempting to become the first Australian to win the event in 26 years.

Andre Agassi will be striving to become just the third man in history to win three straight Australian Open crowns, joining Jack Crawford (1931-33) and Roy Emerson (1963-67).

Pete Sampras and Yevgeny Kafelnikov will be the other former champions returning to Melbourne in January.

Direct acceptance main-draw entries were given to the top 104 ranked players.