Nothing Upsetting About Australian Openers

Two Americans who figure to be around at the end did nice work at the beginning of the Australian Open today.

Andre Agassi, ranked No. 1 in the world and seeded thusly here, made quick work of an unheralded Argentine named Mariano Puerta, 6-2, 6-2, 6-3, and said afterward of the impressive 1-hour 26-minute steamroller, “I felt like I did everything I needed to. . . . I’m focused on making it a miserable day for my opponent.”

Lindsay Davenport, ranked No. 2 in the word and seeded thusly here, spent 1 hour 4 minutes making it a miserable day for France’s Sarah Pitkowski, 6-3, 6-1, and said afterward, “I played OK. I still think I need to get better and, hopefully, I will in the next two weeks.”

Obviously, the Agassi and Davenport matches went as expected, and pretty much served as a warmup for the more-anticipated opener matching Pete Sampras and big-serving Australian Wayne Arthurs. They were scheduled to go at it in the night session, in the early hours of this morning California time, and many here give Arthurs a decent chance, especially because the Center Court at Melbourne Park is playing slick and fast. Sampras, of course, is the best all-around server in the game and tends to turn these “decent-chance” challenges into merciless bloodlettings.

Agassi, who won here in 1995 and is one of only five men to have won all four Grand Slam events at least once, looked even fitter and faster than in 1999, when he picked up major titles at the French and U.S. Opens and finished the year with a streak of 49 wins in 57 matches. Four of those eight losses came at the hands of Sampras, and if the two play to their bracket positions here, they will meet in the semifinals.

Agassi lost here in 1999 in the fourth round to Vince Spadea, but he implied that last year’s situation and this year’s are light-years apart.

“It was a difficult time last year,” he said. “I was going through a lot of changes and all you have to do is be a little bit off and you will be a little worse than your opponent and it’s possible to look horrific out there. I’m not sure I believed in my game quite as much as I do now, and my fitness.

“I don’t think, no matter what I accomplish this year, that emotionally or personally, it could ever feel as fulfilling as last year did.”

The “personal” part of that equation was in clear evidence here, as she has been ever since October. Sitting in the press section, rooting on Agassi while surviving hordes of autograph-seekers, was Steffi Graf, a four-time winner of this event. At last year’s Australian, Agassi was in the final stages of a breakup with his wife, actress Brooke Shields.

Davenport has won U.S. Open and Wimbledon titles in her still young career, but has never won here. She lost in the semifinals the last two years, including last-year’s stunner against unheralded Amelie Mauresmo. And even though she lost to Mauresmo again in the final of a warmup event last weekend in Sydney, she dismissed the significance of that.

“Two hours after that was over, it was out of my mind,” Davenport said. “Sometimes, it is great to have another event coming up right away, something you have to prepare for immediately.”

Davenport’s next opponent will be Marissa Irvin of Santa Monica and Harvard Westlake High School, who played her way through the qualifying and then took out Davenport’s doubles partner, Floridian Corina Morariu. Irvin, a sophomore at Stanford and the Cardinal’s No. 1 player, was down a service break in the third set, but ended up winning, 2-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Irvin started her junior career in 1989 in a Southern California event, losing to none other than Venus Williams. She is playing as an amateur here, meaning she lost out on up the approximately $7,300 paid to first-round winners.

Both Davenport and Irvin come from Southern California volleyball stock. Davenport’s father, Wink, played on the 1968 U.S. Olympic team, and Irvin’s father, Richard, is a former UCLA All-American.

Among the other U.S. players, onetime phenom Jennifer Capriati continued to edge back into the world tennis picture, and onetime No. 1 Jim Courier continued to edge out.

Capriati, playing in an eggshell blue dress that matched the color of the sky on this warm, gorgeous summer day in Australia, turned in the first victory of the event, finishing off Austrian Barbara Schwartz in 1 hour 11 minutes, 6-1, 7-6 (7-1). The Barcelona Olympic champion and a former No. 6-ranked player, Capriati, 23, has improved her ranking to No. 21. And while she is very careful in interviews to remain noncontroversial, she did admit that her top 25-status lets her “walk with her head higher and her shoulders back a bit more.”

Courier, who will be 30 in August and has won here twice, fought every step of the way against Frenchman Nicolas Escude, 26, but lost after 2 1/2 hours, 6-7 (7-4), 6-3, 7-5, 6-1.