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Agassi cruises into quarters

Andre Agassi, ranked 13th and seeded fifth at the Mercedes Benz Cup tennis tournament now on in Los Angeles, pushed his winning streak to eight with a 6-4, 6-4 rollover of Jan-Michael Gambill, who had beaten him in the quarterfinals of the Newsweek Champions Cup at Indian Wells, California, in March.

Earlier, top seed Patrick Rafter of Australia defeated Martin Damm 6-3 5-7 6-1, while Justin Gimelstob advanced when eighth-seeded Vince Spadea retired from exhaustion after trailing 6-3 3-0. Sandon Stolle, meanwhile, stopped fellow Australian Andrew Ilie 6-3 7-6 (8-6).

Agassi will face Stolle in the next round, at the hardcourts of the UCLA Tennis Center where the tournament is being held.

IN Palo Alto, California, Venus Williams -- dubbed, along with sister Serena, Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova, as the Spice Girls of tennis -- shook off a bad first set to beat Corina Morariu 4-6 6-1 6-0 to move into the quarters of the $450,000 Bank of West Classic at Stanford University.

On another court, second seed Monica Seles, who suffered dehydrataion in course of her outing on Wednesday, showed no ill effects while posting an easy 6-3 6-1 win over France's Anne-Gaelle Sidot.

Williams looked a shade rusty against the 20-year-old Morariu, ranked 36 in the world, whose game is characterised by fiercely hit one handed backhands. However, in the second set, Williams stepped up a gear, and reeled off nine straight games.

Interestingly, it was in this tournament that Venus Williams, the world's fifth ranked player, made her pro debut in 1994.

Williams will now play seventh seed Elena Likhovtseva, who scored a 6-1 6-4 victory over American Amy Frazier. A win there will take Williams into a match-up against Monica Seles.

Fifth seed Natasha Zvereva advanced to the quarters, defeating Elena Tatarkova 0-6, 6-4, 6-2 to raise visions of a replay of her recent Wimbledon triumph, when she upset Steffi Graf.

IN New York, meanwhile, world number one Pete Sampras indicated that he was now completely recovered from a recent minor foot surgery, and indicated that he had set his sights on the US Open.

A win there could see him tie the world record, with 12 Grand Slams to his name, and Sampras, participating in a teleconference from his new home in Orlando, Florida, indicated that the title, and the record, was very much on his mind.

The world number one will begin his hardcourt season in Toronto next week, moving on to Cincinnati and New Haven before taking his shot at a fifth US Open title.