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From a correspondent in St Petersburg, Russia
October 24, 2002
TOP seed Andre Agassi has eased into the second round of the
$US1 million ($1.81m St Petersburg Open with a 6-3 6-4 win over
unseeded Czech Radek Stepanek.
Agassi went into the match with maximum confidence, winning his
serves to love and breaking his 23-year-old opponent to grab a
3-0 advantage.
Stepanek fought hard to pull level but Agassi’s lead was never
in doubt and he took the opening set in 25 minutes.
The American underlined his supremacy at the Saint Petersburg’s
carpet courts, starting the second with another break to put
himself 2-0 up.
The 32-year-old Las Vegan kept his advantage to win the set and
the match after one hour on court and now faces Slovak Karol
Kucera in the second round.
France’s Sebastian Grosjean, third seed here, eliminated
Armenia’s Sargis Sargsian 6-4 6-4 to record his fourth win in
as many meetings with the 29-year-old hard-working baseliner.
Sargsian broke in the seventh game of the opening set to a 4-3
lead but Grosjean immediately levelled. In the 10th game the
24-year-old Frenchman broke again to take the set in 40 minutes.
They traded breaks early in the second set but Grosjean performed
with more accuracy, making the deciding break in the 10th game
to take the set and the match in 1hr 28min.
“Today was a really tough match for me,” Grosjean said.
“It’s never easy to play the first round after you’ve played
well last week like I did in Madrid.
“I would like to meet Agassi in the semi-final again but we both
still need to win two more matches before it happen,” he added.
Grosjean, who is currently ranked 21 in the ATP race, meets
Mariano Zabaleta of Argentina for a place in the last eight.
Argentina’s 23-year-old Gaston Gaudio, seeded seventh, improved
his record with the event’s wildcard Andrei Stoliarov of Russia,
clinching the first win 7-5 6-1 in their third head-to-head
meeting on the way to the quarter-finals.
Eighth seed Max Mirnyi of Belarus also made the second round
with a 6-3 6-4 win over another unseeded Czech player Jan Vacek.
Romania’s Andrei Pavel, seeded ninth, barely broke sweat,
brushing off Tuomas Ketola of Finland 6-2 6-4 to earn his
quarter-final pass.
Agence France-Presse
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