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Saturday snoozers Seeds breeze past overmatched opponents in Paris
Posted: Monday June 05, 2000 07:20 PM
PARIS (Reuters) -- Magnus Norman and Marat Safin underlined their status as two of the tournament favourites by hammering out straight sets wins to reach the last 16 of the French Open on Saturday, but seventh seed Thomas Enqvist fell in five sets to clay court specialist Albert Costa. Norman, at three the highest seed left in the men's draw, brushed aside Armenia's Sargis Sargsian 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 on Court 10 while Safin battered Tommy Haas off Center Court 7-6, 6-3, 6-3. Norman lost his only previous match against Sargsian 6-2, 6-0 last year at Delray Beach. His transformation since then has been remarkable. He reached the Australian Open semifinals at the beginning of the year and captured his first Masters Series title in Rome last month. On Saturday the gulf in class between the two players was evident and Sargsian never came close to troubling the current leader of the ATP's Champions' Race. Norman meets last year's runner-up Andrei Medvedev in the last 16. Medvedev beat Agustin Calleri of Argentina 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. Safin had never beaten German Haas going into their third round clash but under the tutelage of former Tour player Andrei Chesnokov he has flourished. Some of his best results this season have been on the European clay circuit and he won consecutive titles at Barcelona and Mallorca. He also pushed Gustavo Kuerten all the way in the Hamburg Masters Series final before losing in five sets last month. His power proved too much for Haas on Saturday and he forced the German into far too many unforced errors as he eased into the fourth round. "I am pleased with the way I played because I was a little nervous coming into the match," 12th seeded Safin said. "He had beaten me the last times we played." Safin faces French sixth seed Cedric Pioline next. The home hero beat Albert Portas 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. "There is something in the air ... I have great hopes in this tournament. The French crowds are happy to see me and that's great," Pioline said afterwards. Safin beat Pioline in a tense three-setter in Hamburg, but Pioline said: "Conditions are very different here." Enqvist's 5-7, 7-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 defeat was not unexpected. Although he lost just seven games in reaching the third round, he has never progressed beyond that round in six previous visits. Ninth seed Lleyton Hewitt, of Australia, beat Hungary's Attila Savolt 6-1, 6-4, 6-0. Women's seeds Venus Williams, Conchita Martinez, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, Anke Huber and Barbara Schett wasted no time in booking their last 16 places. Williams, seeded fourth, whipped France's Emilie Loit 6-2, 6-2, on Court Suzanne Lenglen while fifth seed Martinez made even lighter work of Silvia Farina, beating the Italian 6-1, 6-0. Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, seeded eight, beat fellow Spaniard Magui Serna 7-5, 6-4, German 11th seed Huber thrashed Poland's Magdalena Grzybowska 6-2, 6-2, and Austrian 16th seed Schett beat Italy's Giulia Casoni 6-2, 6-1. Williams never allowed her French opponent to get into the match and silenced the patriotic Court Suzanne Lenglen crowd early on. "I guess I just had a really good day out there," she said afterwards. Huber, a semifinalist here in 1993, is back in top form after a shaky couple of years. A former world number four, Huber won her first singles title since 1996 earlier this year by coming back from 5-1 down in the final set to take the Estoril title. Saturday's performance underlined her form as she thumped balls all around the court with ease. Grzybowska, who beat Huber 6-4, 6-1, last month at the Italian Open, had no answers to Huber's power this time around and bowed out without much of a fight. "I didn't let her come into the match. Everything came together for me," Huber said. "Today's match was much better than the first two rounds but I must improve if I am going to beat Venus [Williams] in the next round." Austrian Sylvia Plischke could not repeat Thursday's heroics when she beat Anna Kournikova in the second round. She lost to Japan's Ai Sugiyama 6-4, 6-1.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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