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Journalism of Courage
TORONTO, Aug 6: Pete Sampras, playing for the first time since his Wimbledon triumph, defeated Italy8217;s Gianluca Pozzi 6-1, 6-2 yesterday to advance to the third round of the Du Maurier Tennis Open.
Sampras, who had minor foot surgery on July 15, will cede his No 1 ranking to Chile8217;s Marcelo Rios if he loses in Toronto. Sampras is on course for a quarter-final match with Andre Agassi, the eighth seed.
The flamboyant Agassi kept pace, downing France8217;s Guillaume Raoux 6-4, 7-5 in a hard-hitting baseline battle.
Other seeds advancing were: No 9 Alberto Costa of Spain, No 10 Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia and No 14 Mark Philippoussis of Australia. No 15 Fabrice Santoro of France lost 7-6 10-8, 6-2 to Germany8217;s Tommy Haas.
Fourth-seeded Monica Seles won a wild 7-6 7-5, 7-5 second-round match over France8217;s Sandrine Testud in the featured night match. In other second-round matches, top-seeded Martina Hingis scored a 6-3, 6-2 win over Natasha Zvereva of Belarus, unseeded Mary Pierce of France upset No 5Conchita Martinez of Spain 6-7 1-7, 6-2, 6-3.
Kucera prevails
AMSTERDAM: Top-seeded Slovakian Karol Kucera has claimed a quarterfinal berth in the clay court Grolsch Open, ousting Dane Thomas Larsen, 7-5, 6-3.
But Romanian qualifier Adrian Voinea came back from a set down in his second round match to upset third-seeded Magnus Gustafsson of Sweden, 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 yesterday. Morrocan Hicham Arazi, who was disqualified on Tuesday for unsportsmanlike conduct in his match against Swede Magnus Norman, is to lose his prize money of 4,770.
O8217;Brien moves up
TORONTO: Alex O8217;Brien, who qualified for the main draw when Thomas Enqvist withdrew, upset Gustavo Kuerten 6-3, 7-6 7-2 at the 2.4 million Du Maurier Open. O8217;Brien had to retire during qualifying on Sunday because of cramps. But when Enqvist, the No 12 seed pulled out, O8217;Brien made the field as the top-ranked qualifying loser.
Capriati knocked out
CARLSBAD CALIFORNIA: The latest comeback attempt of Jennifer Capriati againended in the first round. Capriati, a teen phenom on the WTA Tour in the early 1990s, was beaten 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 by Ai Sugiyama of Japan yesterday in the 450,000 Toshiba Tennis Classic at the La Costa Resort and Spa.
