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Ruthless Agassi demolishes Lee Posted: Wednesday January 15, 2003 5:08 AMMELBOURNE (Reuters) -- Second seed Andre Agassi refused to get carried away after his 6-1 6-0 6-0 demolition of South Korean Lee Hyung-taik in the second round of the Australian Open on Wednesday. The American, bidding to become the first overseas male player to win four titles in Melbourne, admitted that he might have benefited from a tougher workout than he got from Lee at Rod Laver Arena. "Everybody has their gas tank and you don't want to spend more than you need to," he said. "But that being said, you do want to make sure you have what it takes when you do get pushed." Lee, the son of a potato farmer had come into the Open on a high after becoming the first South Korean to win an ATP title at the weekend with victory at the Sydney International. But he was brought down to earth with a bump as everything Agassi touched turned to gold. Agassi, Australian Open champion in 1995, 2000 and 2001, confessed, however, that Lee had rattled him at the start of the match when he held his own serve and held three break points in the second game. "He had me love-40 on my serve (and) I felt an immediate sense of urgency. I felt his game and just picked up my shots, sort of got a little momentum and never looked back," said the 32-year-old. Great feeling "The stats would show that I was playing aggressive tennis without missing a whole lot, so that's a great feeling." In fact, Agassi committed just 13 unforced errors in a ruthless display of power, rattling off 18 straight games to leave Lee shell-shocked. "It's impossible to have a score line like that without playing well. For it to go that way was certainly unexpected," said Agassi, who will play Frenchman Nicolas Escude in the third round. Agassi, who is one of the title favorites again after winning the Kooyong Classic last week, warned that he was in the form to win his eighth career grand slam title. "I come down here ready to go because we get out of the blocks so quickly. January 1 comes and the next thing you're thinking about is a grand slam," said Agassi, who has a remarkable 32-3 record at the Australian Open. But he refused to buy into talk that his path to the final would be all plain sailing. "You hope you always play your best tennis in the best of situations. (But) my experience in grand slam play is you can never predict how it's going to unfold," he said. "So you need to constantly push yourself to play your best." Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
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