MELBOURNE, February 2: A spectacular crash by the top men at the Australian Open let in Petr Korda for an emotional breakthrough win, while Martina Hingis proved she is still smarter than the others in women's tennis.Pete Sampras was meant to stroll to victory, but in the end it was the Cup of `Pistol Petr' from Prague, who sealed his first Grand Slam win after 12 years as a professional. The four men's seeds who reached the fourth round was the worst showing in the 30 years of professional tennis at one of the four majors.
Sampras bombed out in four sets in the quarter-final to Karol Kucera of Slovakia, another of the success stories of the open whose semi-final appearance boosted him into the world top 20.
The defeat of Sampras should have let in Andre Agassi, who enjoyed ``kicking some butt'' again after his disastrous 1997 when he was relegated to the satellite tours.
The Las Vegas showman, unseeded here, displayed much of his old brilliance as he charged through to the fourth round. But hiscomeback spluttered when he was beaten by Spaniard Alberto Berasategui in five sets.
Australia's World number two Pat Rafter was a third round victim of the claycourt-loving Spaniard after two sapping earlier matches. World number three Michael Chang went out in the second round -- his worst showing in four years at Melbourne Park.
Even the big servers backfired. Britain's Greg Rusedski, the World number six, crashed to Australian doubles specialist Todd Woodbridge in the third round. Goran Ivanisevic did not get past round one.
The results have had a major impact on the rankings with Korda vaulting from number seven to two and losing finalist Marcelo Rios from eight to five.
Sampras, who said his defeat showed what a target he has become at the majors, said the rout of the seeds showed how close the World number 50 was now to the number one.
Hingis is being watched even more closely in the battle for the women's titles but won this one with little stress against Conchita Martinez in the final (6-3,6-3). With Steffi Graf and Monica Seles missing, this could turn into the year of the woman power-server and even more baseline battles.
The draw went as planned with World number one Hingis and number three Lindsay Davenport of the United States reaching the semi-finals. German Anke Huber pulled off two impressive wins over Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Amanda Coetzer, the fourth-ranked South African.
Martinez won a protracted battle with Davenport to reach the final, but her top spin and baseline power could not match Hingis's intelligence and patience on court.
``At this tournament you could really see what the young players can achieve, how good they are,'' said Hingis, who rated her third round match against the glamorous 16-year-old Russian, Anna Kournikova, as her toughest of the fortnight.
``I was playing Grand Slam doubles with Mirjana Lucic for the first time and we won it right away. So it was a big effort. Kournikova gave me a hard time in the singles and everybody knows that the Williamssisters can play. I think in the future you are really going to see how tennis has changed,'' said Hingis, referring obliquely to the absence of Graf and Seles.
Venus Williams put her younger sister Serena out in the second round and was then beaten herself in the quarter-final by Davenport.
But the 17-year-old is closing on a title and is quick to tell everyone. She had the fastest serve of the women in Melbourne -- with Brenda Schultz-McCarthy of the Netherlands -- and every other area of her game seems to improve each week.
Williams won her first major title with fellow-American Justin Gimelstob in the mixed doubles contests.All the doubles titles went to pairs who had hever played together before: Williams and Gimelstob, Hingis and Lucic in the women's doubles and Dutch specialist Jacco Eltingh and Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden in the men's doubles.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
