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Tennis

Near-perfect Agassi routs South Korean

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Three-time champion Andre Agassi breezed to a second-round victory over Lee Hyung-taik in the Australian Open today, losing one game.

Lee, who became the first South Korean to win an ATP Tour title Saturday, took the first game with three clean groundstroke winners and a miss by Agassi.

Another winner and two misses by Agassi gave Lee three break points against the second-seeded American's serve before Agassi turned the match completely around.

He won 13 straight on his way to a 6-1, 6-0, 6-0 victory.

"I was seeing the ball pretty well," Agassi said. "He hits the ball so flat, he struggled controlling it early. ... Once you get up, it's a lot easier to make more shots."

Fourth-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero, who lost to Lee in the Adidas International on Saturday, reached the third round by beating Jean-Rene Lisnard 6-0, 6-4, 6-2.

French Open champion Albert Costa, seeded eighth, advanced with a 6-4, 6-7 (11-9), 6-2, 6-3 victory over Australian wild card Scott Draper.

He next plays Spain's Felix Mantilla, who ousted No. 27 Jan-Michael Gambill.

No. 12 Sebastien Grosjean, a semifinalist here in 2001, beat Karol Kucera 7-6 (7-2), 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-1). Wayne Ferreira beat Michel Kratochvil 6-2, 6-2, 7-5.

On the women's side, fifth-seeded Justine Henin-Hardenne needed 48 minutes to beat former top 10 player Anna Kournikova 6-0, 6-1.

Kournikova, coming back from an ankle injury, double faulted six times, missed most of her volley attempts and committed 29 unforced errors.

Henin-Hardenne, the Wimbledon runnerup in 2001 and a semifinalist last year, next meets No. 32 Katarina Srebotnik, a 6-1, 6-7 (7-4), 6-3 winner over Virginie Razzano.

After the first-round loss by defending champion Jennifer Capriati, Alexandra Stevenson became the next-highest player to go out. Stevenson, seeded 15th and a 1999 Wimbledon semifinalist, lost 6-2, 6-2 to Denisa Chladkova.

German Marlene Weingartner, who beat Capriati, reached the third round with a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory over Stephanie Foretz, ending with a winning drop shot.

No. 7 Daniela Hantuchova struggled to a 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-3) victory over Italy's Adriana Serra Zanetti.

No. 23 Paola Suarez, leading 6-0, 3-0, advanced when Italy's Tathiana Garbin retired with a right shoulder strain.

Russian Nadia Petrova ousted No. 21 Ai Sugiyama 6-4, 6-4.

South Korea celebrated after Lee beat Ferrero on Saturday. For his match with Agassi, about two dozen Koreans cheered Lee from behind a large national flag in the center court's upper deck.

Lee's best chance to win another game came on his serve in the final set's second game, but Agassi got to deuce with a forehand crosscourt that landed on the sideline.

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