BASEL, (SWITZERLAND), OCT 7: Australian Open champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov kept alive his goal of ending the season as the World's top-ranked player with a victory over American Vincent Spadea in the opening round of the Swiss Indoors here.Winner of last week's Grand Slam Cup, third-seeded Greg Rusedski (Britain) cleared the first hurdle in Basel, vanquishing France's Fabrice Santoro in straight sets.Kafelnikov, seeded second, overcame a false start to defeat Spadea 6-3, 7-5, keeping pace with French and US Open champion Andre Agassi in the fierce battle for the No 1 year-end ranking.The 25-year-old Russian lost his opening serve, handing Spadea a 1-0 lead. But that was to mark the end of Spadea's threat, with Kafelnikov breaking the American's next two serves to jump ahead 3-1.Spadea continued to fight until 5-5 in the second set when Kafelnikov snuffed out any hopes of an American comeback, breaking to seal the victory.Kafelnikov, looking for a third title this season, is likely to meet littleresistance in the 2nd round where he meets French qualifier Lionel Roux.Rusedski avenged his loss to Santoro in Doha (Qatar) last year, defeating the Frenchman 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 to advance to the 2nd round.In other first round play, Hicham Arazi (Morocco) upset seventh-seeded Nicolas Lapentti (Ecuador) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, and Slovakia's Dominik Hrbaty trounced Andrei Pavel (Romania) 6-0, 6-2Berasategui prevailsPALERMO: Unseeded Alberto Berasategui out-dueled fellow-Spaniard Fernando Vicente, the No 6 seed in the $350,000 ATP Tournament 4-6, 7-6 (9-7), 7-5, in a 2nd round marathoner that lasted nearly three hours here yesterday.Also advancing to the quarter-finals in the clay-court event of the men's tour was Argentina's Hernan Gumy, who made quick work of fellow countryman Gaston Gaudio, 6-0, 6-1.In a late eveing match, Markus Hipfl (Austria) defeated Italy's Davide Sanguinetti 6-4, 6-2. The last match scheduled pitted Younes El Aynaoui and Karim Alami, two Moroccans.NormanstrugglesSHANGHAI: Swede Magnus Norman had to struggle through three sets at the $350,000 Shanghai Open today to dismiss a challenger hungry for victory after going winless for the first four months of 1999.Norman, seeded second and holder of four titles this year, finally defeated Peter Wessels (Netherlands) 6-7 (4-7), 7-5, 7-6 (7-3) in two hours, 12 minutes here.Wessels, ranked No 82, stands 12-12 for the season. He did not win a match until mid-April at Chennai, India, where he reached the semi-finals.Norman stands level with Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras in the chase for titles after winning three on clay and one on hard courts. The Dutchman won the opening set and Norman had to go on an 10-point tear late in the second to stay in contention and force a third. That set also went to a tie-breaker, with Norman winning through on his first match point with a putaway to the corner.The Swede next plays a fighting young Thai with a big-hitting style who has played far above his No 169standing so far this week.Paradorn Srichaphan brushed aside another Dutch player to reach his second quarter-final in a month.The 20-year-old Thai No 1 knocked out John Van Lottum 6-3, 6-2, taking just 58 minutes to produce another career-best showing on the ATP Tour.Fourth-seeded American Jan-Michael Gambill won through against Frenchman Anthony Dupuis 6-3, 6-4. Gambill will play either sixth seed Michael Chang, the defending champion, or up-and-coming Maxi Mirnyi (Belarus).Testud ralliesFILDERSTADT (GERMANY): Defending champion Sandrine Testud staged a remarkable comeback to defeat US open champion Serena Williams 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 and reach the quarter-finals of the $520,000 Porsche WTA event here.The Frenchwoman trailed 2-4 in the second set and 1-5 in the third, before rallying to win the last six games of the match against the No 3 seed.There were no problems for the top two seeds, Martina Hingis (Switzerland), and Lindsay Davenport (US), both easing into the quarter-finals witheasy 2nd round victories.Davenport needed only 43 minutes to overwhelm Italian qualifier Silvia Farina 6-0, 6-1, while Hingis took just six minutes longer to defeat American Jennifer Capriati 6-4, 6-0.Mary Pierce (France) was another 2nd round winner, although the No 4 seed needed almost two and a half hours to battle past Natasha Zvereva (Belarus) 7-6 (7-3), 5-7, 6-4.Williams dominated the opening set against Testud, and looked poised for a comfortable victory when she broke twice to lead 3-0 in the second.As 27-year-old Testud began to raise her level, errors crept into her 18-year-old opponent's game, and the Frenchwoman won four games in a row to level the match.The American again broke twice to lead 5-1 in the final set, only to lapse into error and allow her opponent to claim an unlikely victory.
