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Straight to the point Hingis' 34-minute win highlights adidas matches
Posted: Tuesday January 11, 2000 10:22 AM
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Spain's Alex Corretja ousted fourth-seeded Cedric Pioline of France 6-4, 6-4 on Tuesday as the seeds continued to tumble out of the adidas International at the Sydney 2000 Olympic tennis venue. Pioline joined top-seeded Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil and eighth-seeded Vince Spadea of the United States as first-round casualties in the men's draw. Lleyton Hewitt, who clinched the Australian men's hardcourt championship Sunday, overcame the jitters after a 2 1/2 hour rain-delay to defeat Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean 6-4, 6-4. Hewitt's win set up a clash with Spanish veteran Francisco Clavet, who downed Keurten on Monday. In other men's first-round matches, second-seeded Nicolas Lapentti of Equador came back to beat Moroccan Younes El Aynaoui 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 and fifth-seeded Karol Kucera of Slovakia outclassed Martin Damm of the Czech Republic 7-6 (7-3), 6-1. Australian Jason Stoltenberg overcame Jacobo Diaz of Spain 6-1, 6-7 (8-6), 6-4, Moroccan Hichim Arazi beat Spaniard Felix Mantill 6-3, 6-4 and Croatian Ivan Ljubicic, who advanced to the draw as the last qualifier, upset Russia's Marat Safin 6-7 (7-4), 6-3, 6-3. In a late doubles match, Pat Rafter made his first competitive appearance since withdrawing from last year's U.S. Open to partner fellow Aussie Wayne Arthurs to a 6-4, 6-4 win against Neil Broad and Brent Haygarth. In women's second-round matches, Alexandra Stevenson eliminated fourth-seeded Barbara Schett of Austria 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, while world No. 1 Martina Hingis took just 34 minutes to dispose of Belarussian qualifier Olga Barabanschikova 6-0, 6-2. "You try to keep it short if you can because there's a lot more to come," Hingis said of her center court blitz. Stevenson grew in confidence against Schett as the match progressed. "The first [set] I was trying too much to do everything at once and I was missing a lot. So I settled down and focused in the second and the third -- I was very happy." Earlier, a resurgent Jennifer Capriati set up a second-round clash with Russian Anna Kournikova after cruising to a 6-3, 6-1 win over Sandrine Testud of France. Capriati, who started the year by beating Hingis 7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 6-3 to cinch the Millennium Cup in Hong Kong on Saturday, said she hadn't felt better in a long time. The 1992 Barcelona Olympic gold medalist said while she's still taking her comeback a match at a time, returning for the Olympics in September was something she wanted "almost more than anything." "Just to come back in the whole atmosphere again and now I have a chance -- I think I have a chance because I'm closer than I was thinking last year or the year before," she said. "So that makes me want it even more." Kournikova led 3-0 and then 5-3 in the opening set against Appelmans but struggled with consistency on her serve. "I couldn't really finish my service games, I was relaxed and didn't finish it," she said of the first set. "[but] I was always up and I think I played well."
In other first-round matches, South African Amanda Coetzer beat American Lisa Raymond 7-6 (7-1), 6-0, Spaniard Conchita Martinez edged Anne Kremer of Luxembourg, 5-7, 7-5, 6-2 and Silvija Talaja of Croatia defeated Nadejda Petrova of Russia 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 6-4.
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