Seles turns on commanding style

MORE and more this is looking like Monica Seles's US Open. With another devastating display of groundstroke power she swept aside Yone Kamio of Japan 6-1, 6-1 in only 53 minutes yesterday to advance to the fourth round.

Since returning to competitive tennis in the Canadian Open in Toronto last month, Seles has played eight matches, won all of them in straight sets, and conceded only 23 games. It is not difficult to look good against her - the freedom with which she plays seems to rub off on her opponents - but not one of them has got close to causing her any kind of discomfort.

Kamio, aged 23 and from Yokohama, helped make up in entertainment what the match lacked as a contest. On a glorious afternoon - warm but not as oppressive as it had been on the previous five days - a packed Stadium Court crowd watched Kamio attempt to out-rally Seles and, on rare occasions, succeed. But Seles's use of angles and the fluency of her shot-making were formidable.

Seles was never the most elegant player in her early career, but whether it is the height she has gained - one and a half inches - during her absence from the game or the way she has matured as a person, there is a stylishness about her game now which has added to her appeal.

She is going down a storm at Flushing Meadows and left the court to yet another standing ovation "I am very surprised by the reception I have received," she said. "Not just on the court, but wherever we go. To me, that is the most amazing thing."

On a day that went very much to form, Andre Agassi was almost as dominant as Seles in his 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 victory over Stefan Edberg. As with any match in which a once-great champion has to succumb to a younger, more assertive man, it was not possible to watch this without feeling for Edberg - champion here in 1992. But that was his last Grand Slam title and in this year's tournament he was unseeded for the first time in a decade.

Edberg still produced some sumptuous low volleys, and you could see that the brain was working on combinations of shots that failed to come off. Agassi, from 5-1 up in the first, lost his serve, and did so again at the start of the second. But he never let these setbacks bother him, trusted to his astonishing eye, hit some returns of serve of withering finality, and dispatched his man in one hour 42 minutes, winning 11 of the last 12 games.

One was tempted to see in Agassi's performance an expression of contempt for the pounds 2,000 fine imposed on him by the tournament earlier in the day for uttering an audible obscenity during his match on Thursday against Alex Corretja of Spain. To put that in perspective: Agassi has already won more than $1.5m this year alone.

It would be even more had he not lost to Boris Becker in the semi-finals at Wimbledon, a match of many memorable moments including the one when Becker finally broke the serve of a hitherto rampant Agassi and raised his arms in mock triumph. Early in the third set of his match against Jason Stoltenberg yesterday, Becker repeated the gesture, and its effect was similarly galvanising as the No3 seed went on to win 6-2, 4-6, 6-0, 6-4 and earn himself a place in the fourth round.

The circumstances on this occasion were slightly different. Having run through the first set without any difficulty, Becker suddenly lost the knack of holding serve. But then so did his Australian opponent. Of the second set's 10 games, seven went against serve, and when Stoltenberg emerged with it thanks to Becker's liberal distribution of double-faults (12 in the match in all), it looked as the German might have a problem.

Instead it was Stoltenberg who caved in. From being ranked as high as 20 at the beginning of the year, the 25-year-old from New South Wales has slipped to 139, and he showed why with a series of wretched service games which handed the initiative straight back to Becker.

Stoltenberg settled in the fourth set, stayed with his man until 4-4 before, at 15-40, Becker hit a marvellous cross-court forehand to break him again and effectively win the match. But it was a rare highlights in a match of patchy quality.

Pete Sampras has been going about business much more ruthlessly. Perhaps it is the desensitising effects of the harsh environment that is Flushing Meadow - all concrete, steel and grime, heat, noise and glare, but it comes to something when a nice, quiet, well-mannered chap like Sampras declares of an up-coming opponent, "I'm going to kick his ass". But that is what he said before meeting Jaime Yzaga in the second round on Friday, and he was true to his word, overwhelming him 6-1, 6-4 6-3 in 92 minutes.