Tennis: Rusedski races to record victory

Tennis

Greg Rusedski set a tournament record in Sydney yesterday when he whitewashed Carsten Arriens inside 29 minutes at the Peters International event.

Rusedksi followed up Tuesday's defeat of the No 2, seed Richard Krajicek, with a 6-0, 6-0 second-round demolition of the German, serving 10 aces and dropping just six points in each set. Event organisers said later that they believed the win was the fastest in the tournament in the modern era.

However, there was no such luck for Rusedski's fellow Briton, Tim Henman, who failed in his bid to reach the quarter-finals. The British national champion, who had knocked out Mark Philippoussis yesterday, was beaten 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 by another Australian, Mark Woodforde.

The joint women's world No 1, Monica Seles, announced her return to tennis in Australia with an emphatic 6-1, 6-2 defeat of Belgium's Dominique Monami. Playing in front of an enthralled 7,000 centre court crowd, Seles completed her second- round match with a minimum of fuss and showed glimpses of her clinical best as she routed Monami in 55 minutes.

The match was the Yugoslav-born American's first since her US Open final defeat by Steffi Graf last September. It was also her first in Australia since she won her third successive Open title in January 1993. One unexpected feature of the match was that the 22-year-old Seles was foot-faulted twice. "I've never been foot-faulted before in my life. I've got to see what I'm doing with my foot when I serve," she said.

The men's world No 2, Andre Agassi, yesterday demonstrated his full recovery from a chest injury as he began his preparations for the defence of his Australian Open title. The 25-year-old American enjoyed a thorough work- out lasting almost three hours before beating Australia's Pat Rafter in three sets, 7-6, 6-7, 7-6 at the Colonial Classic at Kooyong, Melbourne.

"I feel healthy and I had no problem with my injury," Agassi said. He originally sustained the niggling ailment during the Davis Cup semi-final against Sweden in late September.