MELBOURNE, January 23: Another tiger of Thai parentage is on the prowl in big-time sports.Tamarine Tanasugarn mauled French Open champion Iva Majoli at the Australian Open today, advancing to the round of 16.
An unknown compared to golfer Tiger Woods, who has a Thai mother, the Los Angeles-born Tamarine still made a big impression, needing slightly more than an hour to eliminate the No 4 seed 6-0, 6-2.
Majoli, the player who kept Martina Hingis from sweeping all four Grand Slam tournaments last year, was the highest women's seed to fall so far.
"I'm shocked. It's like I still can't believe that this really happened," said Majoli, who added that she had been playing well in morning practice after two good rounds here.
The daughter of an Olympic basketball player who is now her coach, next meets ninth-seeded Frenchwoman Sandrine Testud, a 6-4 6-2 winner over Czech Adriana Gersi.
The 20-year-old Tanasugarn, who carried the flag for the Thai Olympic team at Atlanta, was modest about her achievement
after racking up her first win over a top 10 player and guaranteed prize money of around US $26,000.
"I think Iva, it's not her day today. She's missing a lot. So I just tried to put the ball in the court," she said.
Also ousted today were men's No 11 Alex Corretja, who lost 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 to France's Cedric Pioline, and women's No 13 Lisa Raymond, who was outlasted 2-6, 6-3, 8-6 by Swiss player Patty Schnyder.
Ten of the 16 men's seeds now have been eliminated, but only No 3 Michael Chang among the top six. Five of the women's seeds are gone.
Among the lesser knowns who advanced was Hicham Arazi, one of two Moroccans still in the field. He beat Spain's Francisco Clavet 4-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 in his second consecutive five-set match. Arazi had eliminated No 15 Mark Philippoussis in the second round.
Men's defending champion Pete Sampras rolled on, as did Petr Korda, the man in the top half of the draw who most worries Sampras.
Sampras defeated Sweden's Magnus Gustafsson 7-5, 6-3, 6-4, and now willplay Arazi.
Korda moved toward a possible semi-final clash with Sampras by beating American qualifier Vince Spadea 6-2, 7-6 (10-8), 6-2, and then doing three exuberant scissors kicks on center court to mark his 30th birthday.
"I couldn't do 30 of them because I would die," said the Czech left-hander, who lost to Sampras in five sets at Wimbledon last year and then beat him in five at the US Open. He next plays Pioline.
No 2 Lindsay Davenport beat Italian Flora Perfetti 6-2, 6-2, but said she wasn't quite back to the good form she enjoyed at the end of 1997, a year in which she won six singles titles. She next plays No 15 Ruxandra Dragomir, a 6-2, 7-5 winner over Argentina's Florencia Labat.
No 8 Conchita Martinez beat France's Anne-Gaelle Sidot 3-6, 6-0, 6-3 and next meets Austrian Barbara Schett, a 6-3, 6-1 winner over Natasha Zvereva of Belarus.
Venus Williams, fresh from beating sister Serena, provided some lackadaisical play before finishing a 6-1, 6-4 victory over France's Amelie
Mauresmo.
Paes-Bhupathi in third round
World doubles tennis championship runners-up Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi entered the third round of the Australian Open defeating Wayne Arthurs and Andrew Kratzman (Australia) 6-2, 6-3 today. The second-seeded Indian pair had won their first round match when they beat Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Sargis Sargsian of Armenia 6-2, 6-2 yesterday.How the seeds fared
Men's singles (3rd round): 1-Pete Sampras (US) bt Magnus Gustafsson (Swe) 7-5 6-3 6-4; 4-Jonas Bjorkman (Swe) bt Fabrice Santoro (Fra) 7-5 6-3 6-4; Cedric Pioline (Fra) bt 11-Alex Corretja (Spa) 6-2 6-1 6-4; 6-Petr Korda (Czech Rep) bt Vincent Spadea (US) 6-2 7-6 (10-8) 6-2
Doubles (2nd round): 1-Todd Woodbridge & Mark Woodforde (Aus) bt Grant Doyle & Todd Larkham (Aus) 6-4 6-2; 2-Mahesh Bhupathi & Leander Paes (Ind) bt Wayne Arthurs & Andrew Kratzmann (Aus) 6-2 6-3; 4-Ellis Ferreira (SA) & Rick Leach (US) bt Gustavo Kuerton (Bra) & Michael Sell (US) 6-3 6-4; 8-Luis
Lobo (Arg) & Javier Sanchez (Spa) bt Tom Kempers & Menno Oosting (Net) 3-6 6-3 18-16; 10-Donald Johnson & Francisco Montana (US) bt Slava Dosedel (Cze Rep) & Libor Pimek (Bel) 6-4 6-4; 11-Sandon Stolle (Aus) & Cyril Suk (Cze Rep) bt Neville Godwin & Chris Haggard (SA) 6-2 6-2; 12-Patrick Galbraith Seattle & Brett Steven (NZ) bt Scott Draper & Jason Stoltenberg (Aus) 6-2 6-3; Lleyton Hewitt & Luke Smith (Aus) bt 15-David Adams (SA) & Aleksandar Kitinov (Mac) 6-3 6-7 (4-7) 14-12; Women's singles (3rd round): 2-Lindsay Davenport (US) bt Flora Perfetti (Ita) 6-2 6-2; 8-Conchita Martinez (Spa) bt Anne-Gaelle Sidot (Fra) 3-6 6-0 6-3; Tamarine Tanasugarn (Tha) bt 4-Iva Majoli 6-0 6-2; 9-Sandrine Testud (Fra) bt Adriana Gergi (Cze) 6-4 6-2; Patty Schnyder (Swi) bt 13-Lisa Raymond (US) 2-6 6-3 8-6; 15-Ruxandra Dragmoir (Rom) bt Florencia Labat (Arg) 6-2 7-5; 16-Venus Williams (US) bt Amelie Mauresmo (Fra) 6-1 6-4
Men's singles (3rd round): Hicham Arazi (Mor) bt Francisco Clavet (Spa) 4-6 6-4 3-6 6-2
6-1; Karol Kucera (Slo) bt Daniel Nestor (Can) 6-2 7-6 (7-3) 6-1; Byron Black (Zim) bt Steve Campbell (US) 6-4 6-0 6-2; Richard Fromberg (Aus) bt Sebastien Lareau (Can) 6-0 6-2 4-6 6-3
Doubles (2nd round): John-Laffnie de Jager & Robbie Koenig (SA) bt Jean-Philippe Fleurian (Fra) & Peter Nyborg (Swe) 7-5 3-6 6-4; Marc Goellner & David Prinosil (Ger) bt Cristian Brandi & Filippo Messori (Ita) 6-4 6-4; David MacPherson (Aus) & David Wheaton (US) bt Karim Alami (Mor) & Tom van Houdt (Bel) 6-3 6-4
Women's singles (3rd round): Barbara Schett (Aus) bt Natasha Zvereva (Bel) 6-3 6-1
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
