No. 53 Vacek Quickly Humbles No. 1 Rios

Marcelo Rios of Chile, who took over the top ranking on the ATP Tour this week, was no match Tuesday night for power-serving Daniel Vacek of the Czech Republic.

Vacek, ranked 53rd on the tour, blew away Rios, 6-3, 6-2, in 62 minutes in the second round of the $2.45-million ATP Championship.

“I made a lot of mistakes,” Rios said. “He was serving big. I think it’s tough to play a guy like that.”

Rios, looking lackluster, stayed at the baseline most of the match, hung his head after hitting numerous returns into the net and watched helplessly as Vacek repeatedly knocked the ball past him.

It was Rios’ first tour match as the No. 1 player, although he held that position for about four weeks earlier this year.

Rios failed to hold serve in the sixth game of the first set, so all Vacek had to do was stay on serve the rest of the set. Vacek broke Rios in the third game of the second set, won the next game with a 126-mph ace, and broke Rios again in the fifth game.

Earlier, a re-energized Andre Agassi, back in the top 10 for the first time since January 1997, kept his comeback rolling by beating Nicolas Kiefer of Germany, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2.

Meanwhile, two of the tournament’s seeded players lost.

Thomas Muster of Austria beat 11th-seeded Tim Henman of Britain, 6-4, 7-5, and Wayne Ferreira of South Africa defeated 15th-seeded Felix Mantilla of Spain, 7-6 (7-5), 7-5.

Pete Sampras, the defending champion and top-seeded player, was idle until today.