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Top seed Kafelnikov falls in the second round

Dhritiman Hui

It took exactly 100 minutes for Yevgeny Kafelnikov to abdicate the throne he had fought hard for throughout his tennis career. Dominik Hrbaty, ranked 31st in the world, played a percentage game, feeding off the top-seeded Russian's mistakes, to redirect the spotlight on Pete Sampras and Patrick Rafter, both of whom can be numero uno if they reach the quarterfinals.

Kafelnikov also gave a liberal on-court display of his frustration, earning the disdain of the Parisian crowd, who booed the Russian off the court as he left, defeated in the second round, 6-4, 6-1, 6-4.

Another star that burnt itself out was Dutchman Richard Krajicek, who failed to live up to his fifth-seed billing, falling to American Vincent Spadea 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.

Jana Novotna, the fourth-seeded women's player, beat Adriana Gersi of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-2 in her second-round encounter.

In other significant matches, the more honest Brit Tim Henman got through his second match against Jiri Novak in four sets, while ninth-seeded Marcelo Rios demolished Frenchman Arnaud Boetsch in straight sets to move into the third round.

But the match that has been causing much speculation is Andre Agassi's second-round match-up against Arnaud Clemente. The American, seeded third at the Roland Garros, was trailing by a set and a break in the fourth set.

In the women's section, the sisters Williams registered facile wins. While Serena caught the eye with her baseline consistency, Venus took a while to settle down before racing though the second set, with the crowd behind her.

Twelfth seeded Sabrina Testud went down in a disappointing display against Mariaan de Swardt 6-3, 6-2.

Sampras's dreams of adding that final piece of silverware on his mantelpiece came very close to being reduced to dust again, as the 92nd ranked Juan Antonio Marin pushed the American to the limits of his physical endurance. Sampras, semi-finalist at Paris last year, entered the Roland Garros with some of his most impressive clay-court form behind him from the World Team Championships barely a week ago. But he found himself severely hindered by a bout of leg cramps, and a touch of big-point nerves, as he double-faulted on match point in the fourth set.

After grappling with his opponent for four hours and 18 minutes, Sampras finally managed to win 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 7-5, 6-7 (9-11), 6-4, leading Marin by a break and finally holding himself together well enough to close out an exhausting first round outing.

Gustavo Kuerten, the 1997 champion, awaits Sampras in the quarterfinals.

The players who snubbed official billing in their first-round matches were unseeded Sebastien Grosjean, Byron Black, Nicolas Escude and Tommy Haas.

Jennifer Capriati, former teen icon who laid waste to her life with a string of drug offences, fought to recapture some of her glory, beating Virginia Ruano-Pascal 6-2, 6-3 for her first victory at the Garros in six years.

Capriati, who won at Strasbourg last week, is now ranked 53rd, her highest ranking in three years.

Against her first-round opponent, Capriati showed some of the ground strokes that had caught the attention of tennis aficionados when she had first arrived on the scene at age 14 in 1990.

Capriati nailed 18 winners from the baseline and won 17 points on the approach to the net... both very impressive statistics.

The only women's seed to fall was number 14 Amanda Coetzer, losing to number 31 Ai Sugiyama.

Russian Anna Kournikova almost took the arclights off herself as she came dangerously close to a first-round exit, but finally got her erratic on-court display under control to win 6-3, 6-3 against Tamarine Tanasugarn.

Positive Steffi makes an impressive opening