Surprises on Sunday at Flinders Park

Roshan Paul

The first week of the Australian Open had been relatively upset free. Although a couple of seeds bowed out early, including Gustavo Kuerten (1), nothing really major had happened. That is, until, as the Kinks would say, "Sunday Bloody Sunday."

On the last day of the first week, Marat Safin (2) found Slovakia's Dominic Hrbaty a little too hot to handle and the Russian went down rather tamely 2-6 6-7 4-6.

The winner of the most Grand Slam singles titles, Pete Sampras (3) found an old friend and former hitting partner in tremendous form. Todd Martin has always been capable of beating anyone on his day, and the ageing American showed that still has both feet firmly out of the grave with a 6-7 6-3 6-4 6-4 victory over Sampras.

Though technically an upset, Tim Henman (8) was always going to find it tough to beat home-boy Pat Rafter (12). In the end, he couldn't. The two-time US Open champion destroyed Henman 6-2 6-3 6-3.

It wasn't totally a bad day for the big guns, however. With his customary slow start, Andre Agassi (6) dropped the first set but then easily overcame amateuer strip-artist Andrew Ilie 6-7 6-3 6-0 6-3.

The top women's seeds however still moved serenely through the draw. The most interesting match was between Monica Seles (4) and the very promising Belgian Justine Henin, who has been on a roll in 2001. However, the buck stopped in the fourth round of the Australian Open as she went down to her more experienced opponent 6-4 4-6 4-6.

Lindsay Davenport (2), Anna Kournikova (8) and Jennifer Capriati (12) all advanced with simple straight-set victories.

Early winners on Monday morning include the 'impoverished' Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov (5), Spain's Carlos Moya and Frenchman Arnaud Clement (15), who overcame Kuerten's destroyer, Greg Rusedski 6-3 6-2 7-5.

Also advancing wihtout a hiccup on Monday morning were Martina Hingis (1) and Serena Williams (6), which sets up an intriguing quarter-final clash between the two of them. Will the Williams sisters continue to torment the number 1 seed, or can she break her recent Grand Slam drought? We'll know soon enough.