Sampras shoots for record Grand Slam titles

“I’m treating it like I always do, and if it happens, great, and I would certainly love to do it here a lot of my heroes come from this country and there is a lot of work over these next couple of weeks to see if I can do it,” Sampras said.

To bring it off, the 28-year-old will get no favours from the draw.He is ranked three in the world having lost his six-time year-end top ranking to Andre Agassi and has a projected semi-final showdown with Agassi.

He has a testing first-up match against big left-handed serving Australian Wayne Arthurs on Monday night and is due to face Slovakia’s Karol Kucera the man who eliminated him at his last appearance here in the quarter-finals in 1998 in the fourth round.

The top half of the draw is by the far the toughest with slam-bam Australian Mark Philippoussis, former Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek, enduring American Todd Martin and last year’s runner-up Thomas Enqvist all ensconsed in the same half as Agassi and Sampras.

Agassi will start favourite for his second Australian title and sixth Grand Slam.Agassi, here with companion Steffi Graf, has looked finely chiselled and fit for the coming battles and his masterful return service will be pitted against the big servers on the faster rebound ace hardcourt surface.“I feel strong, I feel like I’m moving well, feel like I’m working my serve well, picking up the serve, and now it’s just a question of the tournament starting,” said Agassi.

No Australian has won the National open for quarter of a century and Philippoussis, afforded hero status for his leading role in winning the Davis Cup for Australia in France last month, will have to negotiate a potential fourth-round meeting with Agassi and then Sampras in the semis if he is to win his first Grand Slam title.

Men singles draws (seedings in prefix)
1-Andre Agassi (USA) vs Mariano Puerta (Arg), Sjeng Schalken (Ned) vs Galo Blanco (Spa), Felix Mantilla (Spa) vs Mariano Zabaleta (Arg), Jan Siemerink (Ned) vs WC-Todd Woodbridge (Aus), Andrew Ilie (Aus) vs Jeff Tarango (US), Jiri Novak (Cze) vs Marcus Hipfl (Aut), Qualifier vs Andrea Gaudenzi (Ita), Qualifier vs 16-Mark Philippoussis (Aus), 9-Richard Krajicek (Ned) vs Fabrice Santoro (Fra), Nicolas Escude (Fra) vs Jim Courier (US), Dejan Petrovic (Aus) vs Qualifier, Hernan Gumy (Arg) vs Andreas Vinciguerra (Swe), Jacobo Diaz (Spa) vs Qualifier, Julian Alonso (Spa) vs Hicham Arazi (Mar), Fernando Vicente (Spa) vs Alberto Berasategui (Spa), Byron Black (Zimbabwe) vs 8-Todd Martin (US), 3-Pete Sampras (US) vs Wayne Arthurs (Aus), Sebastien Lareau (Can) vs Mikael Tillstrom (Swe), Marc Rosset (Swi) vs Carlos Moya (Spa), Jean-Michael Gambill (US) vs Magnus Gustafsson (Swe), Joseph Sirianni (Aus) vs Franco Squillari (Arg), Mark Woodforde (Aus) vs Qualifier, Qualifier vs Slava Dosedel (Cze),Paradorn Srichaphan (Tha) vs 14-Karol Kucera (Svk), 11-Tim Henman (Gbr) vs Jerome Golmard (Fra), Rainer Schuttler (Ger) vs Juan Antonio Marin (Crc), Bernd Karbacher (Ger) vs WC-Michael Hill (Aus), Sebastien Grosjean (Fra) vs Goichi Motomura (Jpn), Ivan Ljubicic (Cro) vs WC-James Sekulov (Aus), Martin Damm (Cze) vs Chris Woodruff (US), Axel Pretzsch (Ger) vs Qualifier, Richard Fromberg (Aus) vs 6-Thomas Enqvist (Swe), 5-Gustavo Kuerten (Bra) vs Albert Portas (Spa), Adrian Voinea (Rom) vs Vincent Spadea (US), Lleyton Hewitt (Aus) vs Paul Goldstein (US), Alex Corretja (Spa) vs Sargis Sargsian (Arm), Jason Stoltenberg (Aus) vs Jonas Bjorkman (Swe), Peter Wessels (Ned) vs Qualifier, Tomas Zib (Cze) vs Gianluca Pozzi (Ita), Cecil Mamiit (US) vs 12-Magnus Norman (Swe), 13-Cedric Pioline (Fra) vs Goran Ivanisevic (Cro), Francisco Clavet (Spa) vs Dominik Hrbaty (Svk), Wayne Ferreira (Rsa) vs George Bastl (Swi), Thomas Johansson (Swe) vs Nicklas Kulti (Swe), Gaston Gaudio (Arg) vs Qualifier,Lorenzo Manta (Swi) vs Karim Alami (Mar), Fernando Meligeni (Bra) vs Tomas Behrend (Ger), Guillermo Canas (Arg) vs 4-Nicolas Kiefer (Ger), 7-Nicolas Lapentti (Ecu) vs Andrei Medvedev (Ukr), John Van Lottum (Ned) vs Arnaud Clement (Fra), Jan Kroslak (Svk) vs Alex Lopez-Moron (Spa), Michael Chang (US) vs Roger Federer (Swi), Scott Draper (Aus) vs Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spa), Laurence Tieleman (Ita) vs Alberto Martin (Spa), Qualifier vs Younes El Aynaoui (Mar), Qualifier vs 10-Tommy Haas (Ger), 15-Albert Costa (Spain) vs Qualifier, Qualifier vs Qualifier, Antony Dupuis (Fra) vs Martin Rodriguez (Arg), Max Mirnyi (Blr) vs Ronald Agenor (Hai), Qualifier vs Stefan Koubek (Aut), Qualifier vs Marat Safin (Rus), Daniel Vacek (Cze) vs Orlin Stanoytchev (Bul), Jens Knippschild (Ger) vs 2-Yevgeny Kafelnikov (Rus).

–WC denotes Wild card