MELBOURNE, Australia -- Grand slam specialist Pete
Sampras crashed out of the Australian Open on Sunday, outgunned
by tour veteran Todd Martin after Marat Safin and Tim Henman
were punished for sub-standard performances.
|  | | It was a frustrating defeat for Pete Sampras, who had never before lost to Todd Martin in a grand slam event. |
Martin, 30, beat the No. 3 seed 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 for his
first victory in a grand slam over Sampras, the winner of a record
13 titles in the four major tournaments.
"Nothing feels better than to know that something I did
today, I've never done before," the unseeded Martin said after
only his third victory over Sampras in 20 career meetings.
Safin, the second seed and U.S. Open champion, continued a
poor run in Australia when he succumbed 6-2, 7-6 (6), 6-4 to 14th seed
Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia.
"That's ridiculous today, what I did on court. It was a
little bit of a disaster," said Safin, who was beaten in the
first round last year.
The defeats by Safin and Sampras meant that the tournament's
top three seeds failed to survive the first week of the
season-opening grand slam. Top seed Gustavo Kuerten was beaten
by Britain's Greg Rusedski in the second round.
Henman, the eighth seed, also was disappointed after he was
soundly beaten 6-2, 6-3, 6-3 by the Wimbledon runner-up last year, Pat Rafter.
"I certainly give Pat a lot of credit for the way he played
but overall I think I handled the situation pretty poorly,"
Henman said.
Andre Agassi, the defending men's champion, had no such regrets after stifling a challenge from an outclassed opponent.
Sixth seed Agassi beat Australian showman Andrew Ilie 6-7 (1), 6-3, 6-0, 6-3 and was on course for a much-anticipated
quarterfinal against Sampras before Martin intervened.
Martin, beaten by Sampras in the 1994 Australian Open final,
recovered after dropping the first set in a tiebreak 2-7.
Martin, who has not won a grand slam title in more than a
decade on the professional circuit, hammered Sampras with
pinpoint serves and then returned Sampras' serve with venom to
dominate the last three sets.
"I think it was the best he played against me in many
years," Sampras said.
Martin said he beat Sampras by ignoring all their previous
matches, when he usually tried to alter his own natural game of
big serves backed by strong returns in a bid to find a way
through the Sampras armour.
"Every time I've ever played Pete I kept on making
adjustments along the way rather than sticking to my guns and
having a shootout with him," Martin said.
"Today I finally stuck to my guns."
Hrbaty, a 1999 French Open semifinalist, had not made it
past the first round in the previous three years in Melbourne, but reached the quarters after downing Safin in just more than two
hours.
The Slovak sizzled from the start, hammering away from the
baseline and serving flawlessly.
"I just played well today. I felt the ball great. I was
playing a little bit faster than Marat today," he said.
|  | | Dominik Hrbaty, from Slovakia, knocked off Marat Safin, which was impressive considering Hrbaty is the 14th-seed and Safin is No. 2.
|
"I didn't give him a chance to hit winners on my serve,"
said Hrbaty, who won a warm-up event in Auckland.
He will now meet local favorite Rafter in the
quarterfinals after the Australian whipped Henman in another lopsided match.
Rafter mixed delicate chip shots with
powerful groundstrokes to confound Henman, who seemed powerless
to counter the Australian's variety.
Henman stayed with his opponent for much of the first set
but Rafter raced away in the second and third sets, breaking the
Briton's serve twice in each. Henman then meekly double faulted
on the final point to hand Rafter the match.
"My performance was certainly nothing to shout about,"
Henman said.
Rafter is determined to put on a good show in what could be
his last grand slam appearance before a home crowd.
"I really wanted to prove something at the Australian Open,"
said Rafter, who has announced he is considering retiring at the
end of this year.
Rafter's previous best Australian Open was in 1995, when he
reached the fourth round.
"I'm very happy with the way I played and where I am right
now," Rafter said.
Agassi, unflustered by Ilie's theatrics, rallied in workmanlike fashion to win.
Agassi
struggled with the unpredictability of Ilie of Australia,
whose exuberance and acrobatic shotmaking had the partisan crowd
laughing, chanting and sensing an upset.
It was not to be.
Agassi lost the charisma contest -- and when is the last time that
happened? -- but won his match because Ilie couldn't sustain a
brilliant start. From 3-3 in the second set, Agassi won nine
consecutive games to take control.
"I must say it's much more enjoyable watching him than playing
against him," Agassi said. "Sometimes you feel like you're
watching when you're out there playing against him because he
really hits some shots that you just can't believe a person can
even attempt, let alone make."
Conditions were sunny but milder after two days of blistering
weather, and the sixth-seeded Agassi withstood some early heat from
Ilie. The journeyman's entertaining assortment of groundstrokes --
including a fallaway forehand and at least four different backhands
-- kept Agassi guessing, and in the first set every unconventional
shot seemed to go in.
"You think you have him on the defensive, and it's like he has
you right where he wants you," Agassi said. "It's not easy to
make a running, flying backhand up the line off your back foot,
open stance, 25 feet behind the baseline. That's too good."
The followthrough on one backhand nearly drove Ilie spinning
into the ground like a corkscrew. And when he lofted a lob over
Agassi on break point for a 2-1 lead in the second set, a jubilant
Ilie made a gesture with his racket -- the sort performed by
heavy metal guitarists. The crowd loved it.
"I didn't mean any disrespect to Andre," Ilie said. "It was
just a celebration that got that way. It was a long point, and I
was really happy."
Agassi, usually a strong front-runner, served for the first set
at 5-4, but let the game get away, then succumbed to a barrage of
winners by Ilie in the tiebreaker.
But after converting only two of his first 11 break-point
chances, Agassi began to take control as Ilie became more erratic.
The Aussie finished with more winners -- 46 to 25 -- but also hit a
staggering 63 errors to 27 for Agassi.
"I gave it my best shot out there," Ilie said. "I ran out of
steam a little bit. I played some really good tennis, he played
better, and I wish him good luck."
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ALSO SEE
Australian Open results
Davenport, Kournikova to meet in quarterfinals
Moya outlasts Hewitt, advances to round of 16
Sampras survives Chela in five sets
Kuerten falls: World's No. 1 tumbles out of Australia
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Andre Agassi blows the backhand past Andrew Ilie for the four-set victory.
avi: 1175 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Dominik Hrbaty wins the rally in his upset of Marat Safin.
avi: 1956 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
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