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| | Wednesday, January 19 | |||||
| Results
MELBOURNE, Australia -- While other seeded players flop all
around them, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras seem destined for a
semifinal showdown at the Australian Open.
The top-seeded Agassi had no trouble cruising into the third
round Wednesday, serving an ace to close out a 7-5, 6-0, 6-3 victory over Sjeng Schalken.
Sampras, No. 3, advanced just as easily, beating Mikael Tillstrom 6-3, 7-6 (6), 6-1. "I made the necessary adjustments to overcome what could have been a real, real difficult day, and that's always a good sign for me," Agassi said. "But now as we move on and you get in the second week, you really start becoming much more of a critic of yourself. Now you just want to make sure you stay workmanlike and get through it."Seven seeded men have fallen in the first three days. The latest to vacate Agassi and Sampras' half of the draw were No. 8 Todd Martin and No. 9 Richard Krajicek. "Today wasn't easy," Sampras said, complaining again about the "ridiculous" fast courts. "Balls are flying all over the place. Each match is pretty dangerous out there." Martin could attest to that. He blew a 5-2 lead in the fifth set to lose to Spain's Fernando Vicente, 6-4, 2-6, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. Nicolas Escude of France beat Krajicek, the 1996 Wimbledon champion, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-3. No. 11 Tim Henman reached the third round when German Rainer Schuttler retired because of a pulled stomach muscle in the second set. No. 16 Mark Philippoussis gave the home fans a scare when he lost the second set and his first service game of the third. He rebounded for a 6-1, 2-6, 7-6 (4), 6-1 victory over Dutch qualifier Raemon Sluiter, serving 27 aces at speeds up to 132 mph.
Philippoussis, who beat Sampras in an exhibition tournament last
week, had struggled through a five-set first-round match Monday
against another qualifier, Israel's Noam Okun. | ALSO SEE 1999 finalist Mauresmo falls fast Down Under Focused Capriati grinds out another victory Defending doubles champ Rafter withdraws Kafelnikov down but not out in Aussie opener Agassi, Sampras impressive in Aussie openers Injury forces Moya out of Australian Open Emerson thinks Sampras will beat his record  | |||||
