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From Staff and Wire Reports

Steffi Graf is injury-free again and looking to make another title run in the Australian Open, which starts Monday at Melbourne.

Graf, 29, continued warming up for the Open with a 6-2, 3-6, 7-5, 2 1/2-hour victory over Serena Williams in the second round of the Adidas International at Sydney.

The victory moved Graf into a quarterfinal match against Venus Williams, Serena’s older sister, who defeated Amanda Coetzer of South Africa, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2.

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“It’s been a while that I’ve been able to start off the year without any injuries and be physically in very good shape,” said Graf, a winner of 21 Grand Slam titles but none since the 1996 U.S. Open. She is three Grand Slam titles short of Margaret Court’s record.

“I wanted to have as many matches as I could before playing a Grand Slam.”

In other second-round matches, top-seeded Lindsay Davenport defeated Mary Joe Fernandez, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6), and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain defeated Anke Huber of Germany, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Monica Seles is training in Melbourne for her return to the Australian Open after sitting out the last two. Seles won the event in 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1996.

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“I love coming here,” she said. “It doesn’t feel like I’m at a tournament when I’m here and when you feel like that you play more relaxed which usually means you play better.”

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