Tennis

Business as usual at the top

By Times wire
Published January 17, 2005

MELBOURNE, Australia - Andre Agassi shrugged off a hip injury that nearly kept him out of the Australian Open, beating German qualifier Dieter Kindlmann 6-4, 6-3, 6-0 in a first-round match.

The four-time champion has lost just once in his past four trips to Melbourne Park - a semifinal setback last year to Marat Safin.

The 34-year-old Agassi damaged a tendon in his right hip and quit an exhibition match against second-ranked Andy Roddick leading up to the Open.

Agassi broke Kindlmann three times from 17 chances in the first two sets but converted all three break-point opportunities in the third to wrap up the last set in 19 minutes.

Top-ranked Roger Federer ripped 54 winners past Fabrice Santoro, opening his Australian Open title defense with a 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 victory. Federer won all 12 points in the first three games and lost just three as he raced to a 5-0 lead in the first set.

"I think the start was important for me," said Federer, who extended his win streak to 22 matches. "That set the tone for the rest of the match. I never really gave him a chance."

Santoro agreed.

"It's as if Roger was saying to me, "Right, that's what I'm offering you, okay,"' he said. "You get the feeling that in each of his matches he just wants to show straight off who the boss is."

Federer won 11 titles last season, including the Australian and U.S. Opens, Wimbledon and the Masters Cup. He started this season with another title at Qatar and beat Roddick in the exhibition tournament.

In women's first-round matches, Serena Williams had more trouble with her shoes than with Camille Pin, winning 6-1, 6-1. Williams, who completed a "Serena Slam" with a victory at Melbourne in 2003 but missed last year's first Grand Slam event because of an injured knee, mixed 27 winners with 22 unforced errors.

The seventh-seeded Williams hit some brutal backhand winners and kept the 23-year-old Pin scrambling to stay in points. Williams did a lot of running early, successful on nine net approaches and producing seven winners before her right shoe fell off at deuce in the second game and skidded behind the baseline.

Williams laced up the shoe and won the point when it was replayed. She spent time between games tying and retying her shoelaces, but otherwise didn't have many problems.

Williams said she is one of the main contenders in a wide-open draw at Melbourne Park.

"I definitely wouldn't be here if I didn't think so; I'd rather stay home," she said. "My goals are pretty much just to win my matches. I think Grand Slams will come with it."

U.S. Open champ Svetlana Kuznetsova beat American Jessica Kirkland 6-1, 6-1. Kuznetsova, seeded fifth, hit 22 winners and five aces.

DOPING SUSPICION: Belgian anti-doping authorities told news outlets that a top female player's urine sample showed traces of a banned substance in a test conducted during an exhibition in Charleroi, Belgium, on Dec.19. The four players involved in that event were Justine Henin-Hardenne, the former No.1 player from Belgium; Kuznetsova of Russia; Kuznetsova's compatriot Elena Dementieva; and Nathalie Dechy of France.

Anne Daloze, director of the anti-doping agency in the French-speaking region of Belgium, which carried out the testing, confirmed the positive preliminary result to Belgian newspaper Le Soir but would not identify the player or the substance involved.

According to Le Soir, the anti-doping officials were proceeding with a second test of the sample and were supposed to have told the player and her national federation on Friday.

Henin-Hardenne withdrew from the Australian Open last week with a knee injury. Kuznetsova, Dechy and Dementieva said last week that they had not been contacted.

[Last modified January 17, 2005, 01:06:09]