Kucera destroys Agassi’s French Open dreams

Top-seeded Agassi, who had won 28 of his previous 29 Grand Slam matches, was outworked by Kucera over the final three sets.

The loss ended his hopes of a Grand Slam after his victory in Australia in January and his bid to become only the eighth man in history to complete the Australian/ French double.

Watched by girlfriend Steffi Graf, last year’s women’s champion, Agassi underwent treatment at courtside when trailing 1-4 in the third set — but he was not able to come back.

Kucera, 27, had lost in the first round here each of the last three years, but the man ranked just 65th eagerly grabbed his chance to win in exactly two hours.

Agassi, clearly in discomfort, sprayed the ball wildly as he made error after error in the final two sets.

Third-seeded Magnus Norman of Sweden and Cedric Pioline of France, the sixth seed, had no such problems.

Norman raced to a 6-1 6-4 6-2 win over France’s Fabrice Santoro, while Pioline had too much consistency for Australia’s two-time US Open champion Pat Rafter, who is recovering from a shoulder injury, winning 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 6-4.

In the women’s, fourth-seeded American Venus Williams won in rapidfire fashion trouncing Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand 6-2 6-2 in just 58 minutes. Sixth-seeded Mary Pierce beat Barbara Rittner of Germany 6-1 6-1.

Conchita Martinez, the fifth seed from Spain, struggled her way past Cara Black of Zimbabwe 4-6 7-5 6-4.

Sylvia Plischke of Austria upset under-achieving 14th-seeded Russian Anna Kournikova – the glamour girl of women’s tennis despite never having won a tournament – 6-2 4-6 6-3.

Asa Carlsson of Sweden recorded a minor surprise by beating former women’s champion Iva Majoli of Croatia, who is very much a reduced force, 7-6 (8/6) 1-6 6-1.