Bottom Half of the Draw Opens for Kafelnikov

Yevgeny Kafelnikov is the defending men’s champion in the Australian Open here, but you’d hardly notice. And the Russian is delighted about that.

Today, he waltzed past his former doubles partner, Daniel Vacek of the Czech Republic, 6-3, 6-0, 6-1, and quietly advanced into the third round. He is seeded second, and the bottom bracket that he is expected to represent in the Jan. 30 men’s final is already drastically depleted.

Seeded players Nicolas Lapentti (No. 7) and Tommy Haas (10) lost today and joined earlier lower-bracket casualties Gustavo Kuerten (5), Cedric Pioline (13) and Albert Costa (15). That left Nicolas Kiefer (4) and Magnus Norman (12), both straight-set winners today, as the last seeded challengers to Kafelnikov in the bottom half.

Kafelnikov is, smartly, playing right along.

“I think the top half of the tournament is a lot, lot stronger because of players like [Andre] Agassi, [Pete] Sampras, [Mark] Philippoussis,” he said. “All those guys make my life much easier.”

The real threat to Kafelnikov may come from unseeded Lleyton Hewitt, an 18-year-old Australian, who is the leader of the new ATP points race that began Jan. 1. He improved his match record this year to 12-0 with a 6-0, 6-0, 6-1 rout of Alex Corretja, the No. 26 player in the world. When Corretja finally hit a backhand winner down the line for 4-1, the crowd in Rod Laver Arena responded with a huge ovation.

Hewitt will play Kafelnikov in the semifinals, if both make it through.

“Hewitt in the semis? I’d love that,” Kafelnikov said.

With top-seeded Martina Hingis scheduled to play later in the evening, No. 3 Serena Williams led a march of seeded women into the third round, with only No. 8 Amanda Coetzer of South Africa losing. Kristina Brandi beat Coetzer, 6-1, 6-3.

Williams improved as the match went on and finished off Nicole Pratt of Australia, 7-5, 6-1, hitting 34 winners to Pratt’s three.

Afterward, Williams said she had stuck with her new bright red Puma shoes, despite eight foot faults in her first round, because tennis needed more color. She joked that Nike might soon go to blue and Reebok to green.

Others advancing were Barbara Schett (No. 6), Conchita Martinez (10), Sandrine Testud (12), Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario (13) and Elena Likhovtseva (16).

Sanchez-Vicario, a finalist here twice, needed three sets to beat Lisa Raymond. Testud advanced by pinning a 6-1, 6-2 defeat on Angelica Gavaldon, the 26-year-old who made it to the quarterfinals here twice before, but had her career disrupted twice by car accidents in recent years.