MELBOURNE, Jan 21: Venus Williams beat sister Serena to establish herself as the rising women's star at the Australian open as another new teen, Mirjana Lucic, hit out at an umpire for her loss.Men's champion Pete Sampras surged into the third round with a quickfire 6-2, 6-1, 6-2 win over Italian challenger Davide Sanguinetti. But 1997 finalist Carlos Moya and home hero Mark Philippoussis were beaten, taking the number of ousted men's seeds to six.Venus Williams, 17, triumphed over her 16-year-old sister 7-6 (7-4), 6-1 in an 87-minute first professional battle between two of the women expected to dominate tennis for the next decade.The much-awaited showdown ended with the Williams bowing together to Centre Court fans and walking off hand-in-hand. Venus saved her apology for the dressing room.Lucic, the youngest player in professional tennis, lost 5-7, 4-6 to No 4 seed Iva Majoli. But she hinted at a conspiracy against her when she accused the umpire of deliberately overruling line calls that were good.Morocco's Hicham Arazi outgunned Australian `Scud' Philippoussis, the 15th seed, 1-6, 6-2, 4-6, 6-1, 9-7 in one of the performances of the day. The diminutive Moroccan No 1 surprised even himself by firing 21 aces against 19 for Philippoussis, who was routed in front of his home-town fans.But Australia discovered a new hero in Richard Fromberg who beat Spanish ace Carlos Moya, last year's finalist against Pete Sampras. Fromberg won 4-6, 6-4, 7-6, 6-4.Moya, the fairy tale of last year's open and the biggest casualty so far, crashed out in two hours 31 minutes and then said he would try to forget his outstanding 1997.The Spaniard, who beat Boris Becker, Jonas Bjorkman and Michael Chang on the way to last year's final said: ``I had a great experience last year but I want to forget it as soon as possible. Now I will have to live with my ranking which will be 18 or 20.''Other top ranked players lived dangerously before getting through. Fourth seed Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden was two sets and a break down to Wayne Ferreira of South Africa but performed a great escape and won 6-7, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-3.But sixth seed Petr Korda of the Czech Republic beat Australian Scott Draper 7-6, 6-3, 6-3. Spain's Alex Corretja, the 11th seed, beat Germany's David Prinosil in straight sets.Women's second seed Lindsay Davenport of the US saved six match points before knocking out Karina Habsudova of Slovakia, 2-6, 6-0, 9-7.Eighth seed Conchita Martinez (Spain) beat Miriam Oremans of the Netherlands and ninth seed Sandrine Testud of France downed German Jana Kandarr 6-7, 6-0, 6-1. Lucic hinted at a conspiracy when she accused the umpire. ``Every game there were balls in and they called them out. Everyone could see they were in,'' Lucic said after losing to Majoli, the French Open champion. Lucic estimated there were around 15 dubious calls and hinted that it could be linked to legal action taken so she could play on the women's tour.Nirupama out in doubles India's Nirupama Vaidyanathan and Nathalie Dechy of France were eliminated in the first round of women's doubles at the Australian Open Tennis Championships here today.Nirupama and Dechy put up a first set resistance but succumbed thereafter to lose 6-7 (2-7), 2-6 to Seda Noorlander of Netherlands and Noelle van Lottum of France.
