ESPN.com - TENNIS - Sampras, Safin latest men's seeds bounced

 
Tuesday, January 23
Sampras, Safin latest men's seeds bounced



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.

Pete Sampras
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
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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Sampras survives Chela in five sets

Kuerten falls: World's No. 1 tumbles out of Australia



AUDIO/VIDEO
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