Seeds keep stumbling

MELBOURNE, Jan 22: US open ch-ampion Patrick Rafter was run over by a "hungry" Thomas Enqvist.

Sixth seed Tim Henman was baffled by Marc Rosset. Wim-bledon women's champion Jana Novotna created her own nightmare, reports AP.

The latest carnage at the Australian Open today left just six of the men's seeds surviving midway through the third round - and only two of the top eight.

It also ended the immediate threat to the No. 1 ranking of Pete Sampras, who skipped this tournament, citing fatigue. No. 3 seed Rafter could have overtaken him by reaching the final.

Six women's seeds were gone. No 9 Conchita Martinez, a finalist last year, and No. 15 Natasha Zvereva, beaten by American Chanda Rubin, joined Novotna in today's exodus.

"It's really open," Enqvist said after reaching the fourth round by beating Rafter 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. "I feel like I'm playing well enough to beat anyone in the draw, but that is not the same thing as going all the way and winning it."

So far this year, Enqvist has won 11 consecutive matches in two tuneups for this tournament.

After a foot injury limited him to 17 tournaments last year, "Of course you are hungry when you get to a new season," said the No. 21-ranked Swede, who has yet to reach a quarterfinal in a grand slam event. He also reached the fourth round here in 1997, and twice in US Opens.

Against Rafter, he added, "I hit good second serves all the time, so it kept him away from the net, and that was the key."

Rafter, an acrobatic serve and volley player who has won two consecutive US Opens, concurred and added that Enqvist was returning well too.

"The second serve is where I like to put pressure on the person. He never gave me a chance to do that today," the Australian said. "The conditions out there don't really suit my serve quite as much, and he was able to really make me pay for missing the first serve."

Enqvist next plays Mark Philippoussis, the US open runner-up, No. 14 seed here and Australia's other hope for its first native winner of the Australian Open since Mark Edmondson in 1976.

Philippoussis never faced a break point after the first set as he served 17 aces and beat Slovakia's Jan Kroslak 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-1.

Another Slovak player, No. 7 Karol Kucera, a semifinalist last year, advanced to the last 16 with a 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Russian Marat Safin.

But Henman, leading 5-2 in the first set tiebreaker, never recovered from the ensuing series of winners by Rosset and went out 7-6 (7-5), 6-3, 7-5.

"It looked like his shoulder was going to drop off, but he's still serving at 200, 205 (kph) most of the time," Henman said. "In the third set, at one stage he looks like he's barely capable of moving, and two points later he's running like a gazelle, so it's difficult to know what to expect."

Rosset attributed his success to taking more chances, while playing with a sore shoulder and a painful stomach.

"At the beginning of the third set, I wasn't feeling that great," said the Swiss player, who was the 1992 Olympic champion but has never gone farther in a grand slam event than the semifinals.

Rosset had a narrow escape when he decided to stay in the United States and practice instead of following his original plan to return on a Swiss Air flight last Sept 2. The plane crashed, killing 229 people.

Unseeded Australian Andrew Ilie beat Norway's Christian Ruud, conqueror of No 2 seed Alex Corretja, 6-2, 6-2, 6-4.

In women's matches, Novotna described her 6-3, 6-0 loss to No. 65-ranked Maria Antonia Sanchez Lorenzo of Spain as "just a nightmare. It was a total disaster. I couldn't put the ball over the net."

After 33 unforced errors in 15 games, she said, "I wish I could blame it on something, but I really don't know."

Zvereva's 7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 6-4 loss to Rubin was not such a major upset. Rubin, now ranked 30th, was a semifinalist here in 1996 and reached the fourth round in 1997, but has had injury problems.

Martinez lost 7-5, 6-1 to No. 95-ranked Emilie Loit of France.

Meanwhile No. 5 Venus Williams advanced toward a possible quarterfinal meeting with No. 1 Lindsay Davenport by beating Romania's Ruxandra Dragomir 6-3, 6-4.

No. 11 Dominique van Roost of Belgium trounced Canadian Jana Nejedly 6-1, 6-1.