Becker's game ignites after tortured first set

BORIS BECKER moved into the quarter finals of the Australian Open yesterday after being given an early shock by New Zealand's Brett, Steven. The German number four seed dropped the first set in alarming fashion before blasting back to beat 37th ranked Steven 1-6, 6-4 6- 3, 6-2 in two hours and 16 minutes.

Becker, world ranked number four, completed the match with an ace, to set up a quarter final clash with Russia's world number six Yevgeny Kafelnikov.

However, Becker looked out of sorts in the first set, losing five, straight games and allowing Steven to take control at the net. Then, also often with Becker, he got a grip on his game, using lightning reflexes at the net and booming aces on the important points to transform the match, running away with the next three sets.

Becker put his first set drubbing down to difficulty in pinpointing Steven's weaknesses. "I really had to think hard and dig deeper," said, Becker, who described the turning point as breaking Steven's served while down a break in the second set. "It was a good thing I broke him right back. All of a sudden my game was a notch better."

Becker, who also had two difficult five setters on his way to the last 16 has now posted his best performance at an Australian Open since winning the title in 1991.

Becker joins Kafelnikov, Americans Andre Agassi, Michael Chang and Jim Courier, Australian Mark Woodforde and Swedes Thomas Enqvist and Mikael Tillstrom in the last eight.

Seventh seeded Enqvist cruised to a fourth round victory with a 7-5, 6-0, 6-3 win over Italian Renzo Furlan - but the event's young giant killer, Mark Philippoussis, will not be there to meet him after crashing back to earth.

Philippoussis, 19, who created the shock of the tournament by beating Pete Sampras two days ago, took a hammering as unseeded Australian compatriot Woodforde breezed home 6-2, 6-2, 6-2.

Kafelnikov, heartened by the shock exit of Sampras, staked his claim to a first Grand Slam title with a 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 demolition of American MaliVai Washington.

In the women's singles, Swuipss set the script by demolishing 11th seed Brenda Schultz McCarthy. Unseeded Hingis reached her first Grand Slam quarter final, become ing the youngest women to achieve the feat in Australian Open history.

Hingis, 15, beat her Dutch opponent 6-1, 6-4 in 59 minutes on Centre Court to provide the day's only surprise in the fourth round.

Second seed Conchita Martinez of Spain, eighth seeded German Anke Huber and South African Amanda Coetzer, seeded 16 all progressed to the last eight with comfortable straight set wins.

Hingis joined fellow teenagers Iva Majoli of Croatia and American Chanda Rubin in the quarter finals as the younger generation issued their challenge to American seed Monica Seles.

Schultz McCarthy, the only seed to fall, showed little resistance despite hitting the fastest serve ever recorded in a women's tournament - an 121.8 mph delivery.

Martinez had surprisingly little difficulty in overwhelming American 10th seed Lindsay Davenport 6-3, 6-1. Davenport, a losing finalist against Seles at the Peters International tournament in Sydney eighth days ago, failed to cope with a succession of sliced shots by Martinez, ranked number two behind Seles K and Germany's Steffi Graf, who jointly hold the number one spot.

Huber booked her passage with a comfortable 6-3, 6-2 victory over unseeded Austrian Barbara Schett Coetzer, who has rebuilt her game over the past two years in a bid to compete with a new band of hard hitting teenagers, reaped the reward, by reaching her second Grand Slam quarter final.