US open champion Pat Rafter and five other seeds were blown away on a blustery day at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne yesterday. Rafter's hopes of becoming the first Australian champion since Mark Edmondson in 1976 were dashed by the strong Swedish forehand of Thomas Enqvist.
Swedish players like Melbourne - they have contested seven of the last 16 finals - and Enqvist shortened his odds with a hugely impressive display, winning in four sets.
But he now comes up against the power-serving of Mark Philippoussis, the 14th seeded Australian.
Wimbledon champion Jana Novotna, the women's third seed, Tim Henman, the men's number six, Spanish ninth seed Conchita Martinez, 15th seed Natasha Zvereva of Belarus and ninth men's seed Richard Krajicek of the Netherlands were all swept away.
Spain's Maria Antonia Sanchez Lorenzo, the world number 65, who had never progressed beyond the second round of a Grand Slam, humiliated Novotna 6-3, 60 in 51 minutes.
Henman's softball tactics against Marc Rosset backfired totally as the Swiss rolled him out in straight sets.
The departure of Rafter, Henman and Krajicek meant only five men's seeds were left in the tournament and number five Andre Agassi of the United States was the highest-ranked player left.
South African Wayne Ferreira came from two sets down to dump Krajicek out of the tournament in the night match.
Ferreira, a semi-finalist here seven years ago, clawed back from losing the opening two sets in tiebreakers to oust the former Wimbledon champion, 6-7 (1/7), 6-7 (5/7), 6-4, 6-2, 6-3, in three hours 19 minutes and reach the last 16 in the tournament.
Ferreira now plays the Slovak Republic's seventh seed Karol Kucera in the fourth round tomorrow.
Emilie Loit, ranked 95th in the world, knocked Martinez out 7-5, 6-1 and now plays another 19year-old and fellow Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo in the fourth round.
Novotna was at a loss for words after her defeat to Spain's Sanchez Lorenzo.
"I don't know what went wrong, I'm in a state of shock," said the 30-year-old who choked at two Wimbledon finals before winning at the third attempt last year.
"It was a nightmare, a total disaster. I couldn't put the ball over the net. I was horrible and I have no explanation whatsoever," she added.
Novotna, a finalist here in 1991, when she lost to Monica Seles, but an early-round loser on three of her next four attempts, had missed the Australian Open in the past three years because she felt the season was too demanding.
But while Novotna was left ruing her loss of form, home-town boy Philippoussis was giving his fans something to cheer about with a disciplined performance to advance to the last 16.
Philippoussis, whose new girlfriend has clamped down on his night-clubbing and cut out junk food, looked meaner and tougher as he dug in to edge Slovak Jan Kroslak, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-1, in just under two hours on centre court to set up a mouthwatering battle with Sweden's Enqvist.
Philippoussis or Enqvist could face Karol Kucera of Slovakia in the semi-finals.
The 24-year-old Kucera tamed Marat Safin 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 as the Russian teenager lost control in the windy conditions.
Safin could do little right against the Kucera ground-strokes yesterday. Norwegian Christian Ruud was another player who admitted he had made it too easy for his opponent.
Ruud, who beat second seed Alex Corretja of Spain in the previous round, could find no way past the tough little Romanian-born Andrew Ilie of Australia who won 6-2, 6-2, 6-4.
"I probably made it a little bit easy for him some times," the Norwegian said afterwards.
"If I had hit deeper and heavier he might have had more problems."
Elsewhere it was business as usual for Venus Williams, who swept into the fourth round after a straight sets win over Romania's Ruxandra Dragomir.
The fifth-seeded 18-year-old Californian packed too much punch for the world number 38 and won 6-3, 6-4.
"I didn't have to work hard," said Williams, who is seeded to meet Davenport in the quarterfinals, if she overcome's compatriot Chanda Rubin in the next round.
Davenport saw off Karina Habsudova of Slovakia, who gave her a hard time here last year, in straight sets.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)