Agassi's game as good as it gets as he nears perfection

There is a price for perfection and in Andre Agassi's case it was the long and intense slog during December under the fierce eye of his trainer Gil Reyes. This physical torture does not guarantee flawlessness, but in his second-round match against South Korea's Lee Hyung-taik the 32-year-old American surely came as close as he ever has in a grand slam to complete mastery. His 6-1, 6-0, 6-0 victory was as good as it gets.

Well, almost. There was a blemish at the beginning when Lee, who had won the pre-Australian Open tournament in Sydney as a qualifier and was on a nine-match winning streak, held his opening service to love and immediately had three break points on the Agassi serve. Memories lurched back to last year's Wimbledon when Agassi was defeated in straight sets by Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan in the second round.

A small frown played across Lee's brow, part concentration, part puzzlement. Surely it could not be this easy? The riposte was swift and terrible: 18 successive games of brilliance, and the deed was done.

Tennis Australia is keen to promote this tournament as the Asian-Pacific Open. Make that the Agassi-Terrific.

This was very special, the best of Agassi condensed into an hour and 20 minutes. He has always been a wonderfully clean hitter of a ball, but here was something bordering on the magical. It was as if he had been promised by an outside force that every shot he made would never miss.

Agassi's one hope now will be that he has not left his best on the court. Nobody in the history of open tennis has won more convincingly at the Australian Open, but Agassi knows it will count for nothing in the next round against France's Nicolas Escude.

The first leading seed in the men's tournament fell yesterday with Spain's Carlos Moya, the number five and beaten finalist here six years ago, going out 3-6, 7-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 against Mardy Fish of the US. The former champion and 22nd seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov also lost, beaten in five long sets by Finland's Jarkko Nieminen 6-3, 6-3, 3-6, 4-6, 6-1.

Agassi also stepped into a growing row over alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs in tennis when he said such claims were "irresponsible".

Agassi insisted: "While there's been a minimal amount of players caught over the last 10 years, we are also probably the leading sport in reference to how often we test, how professional our tests are and how strict our penalties are."

Here, for the first time in tennis, there are tests for EPO, a hormone occurring naturally in the body. When additional amounts are taken it is said to boost stamina.

Meanwhile, while it would be somewhat wide of the mark to refer to Venus as the forgotten Williams sister but, having been beaten by her younger sister, Serena, in the past three grand slam finals, doubts have been cast on her commitment.

A nervy, error-strewn opening first-round victory here over Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia had the tongues wagging again, but yesterday Venus was back on firmer ground with a routine 6-3, 6-0 win over her fellow American Ansley Cargill, ranked 116 places below the second seed.

Belgium's Justine Henin-Hardenne, who completed a horribly one-sided 6-0, 6-1 second-round victory over Russia's Anna Kournikova, suggested that the vulnerability displayed by the Williams sisters this week gave everybody heart and made them appear human rather than superhuman. But try telling Cargill that.

Lindsay Davenport struggled to a 6-7, 6-4, 7-5 victory over Iroda Tulyaganova of Uzbekistan. Mostly the American, seeded nine, looked as if she wanted to be anywhere other than on court. She had points galore to take the opening set, and thereafter played a desultory game of catch-up which almost totally lacked conviction.

Davenport missed half of last season after arthroscopic surgery on a knee and she is still not moving at all well. She also served particularly poorly, and was lucky to survive.