Agassi blows Lee up

Andre Agassi swept into the Australian Open third round here Wednesday as Venus Williams donned her best jewellery to produce a sparkling victory.

Agassi, seeded two, needed just 80 minutes to blast aside South Korean challenger Lee Hyung-Taik with a 6-1, 6-0, 6-0 win.

The seven-time Grand Slam winner will play French Davis Cup star and 29th seed Nicolas Escude in the next round and is brimful of confidence after awarding himself top marks for his display.

"How can you not (rate it 10 out of 10) when you play a guy of Lee's quality, playing as well as he's been playing, to go out there and have a score line like that doesn't happen too often," Agassi said.

Agassi is bidding to become only the fourth man to win four Australian Open titles, behind Roy Emerson (6), Jack Crawford (4) and Ken Rosewall (4).

Lee said playing Agassi was like hitting against a wall.

"Last week in Sydney my groundstrokes were causing my opponents problems, but against Agassi I felt like I was hitting against a wall," said Lee, who had stunned the field to win the Sydney International.

Agassi's counterpart in the women's tournament, the second seeded Williams, came up with a vastly-improved display as she beat lowly-ranked American Ansley Cargill 6-3, 6-0. "I definitely think it was much better, definitely a lot less errors," a relaxed-looking Venus said afterwards.

While Venus and Agassi sailed into the third round there were notable casualties in the men's tournament, with Spanish fifth seed Carlos Moya unhinged by world number 77 Mardy Fish of the United States.

Fish reeled in his opponent 3-6, 7-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 and admitted he was as surprised as anyone to score a double over Moya after beating him in Sydney last week.

Fish will play South African Wayne Ferreira in the next round after a win which removes a sizeable obstacle from Agassi's route to a fourth Australian Open crown.

There was a further upset in the men's tournament with Olympic champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov suffering a five-set loss to Finland's Jarkko Nieminen.

Nieminen sent the Russian 22nd seed and former winner packing with a 6-3, 6-3, 3-6, 4-6, 6-1 victory.

Two other prominent seeds both made it through safely, with No.4 Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain and compatriot Albert Costa, seeded eight, advancing.

Ferrero downed Jean-Rene Lisnard of France 6-0, 6-4, 6-2, while Costa needed four sets before quelling Aussie hope Scott Draper 6-4, 6-7, 6-2, 6-3.

In the women's event, after surpassing expectations by winning in the first round, it was a case of normal service resuming for Anna Kournikova.

A crushing 6-0, 6-1 defeat to Belgian fifth-seed Justin Henin-Hardenne showed just how far the Russian glamour-girl has fallen since being a top 10 player three years ago.

The lop-sided nature of the rout prompted one reporter into asking if the contest could be described as a match.

The 22-year-old world number 42 was chasing the game from the outset, Henin-Hardenne's powerful groundstrokes forcing Kournikova to scramble around the back of the court in the opening game.

Seventh-seed Daniela Hantuchova's looks, meanwhile, have seen her get the 'Kournikova treatment' from the international media during her time on the tour.

But the Slovakian seventh seed showed nerves of steel to come through in three sets against Italy's Adriana Serra Zanetti, winning 7-6, 7-6 to earn her place in the third round.

Lindsay Davenport breathed a sigh of relief after scrambling past Uzbekistan's Iroda Tulyaganova.

The 26-year-old former world number one, who a year ago was learning how to walk on crutches after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery, fought through a poor performance to win 6-7, 6-4, 7-5.