The former world number one Andre Agassi was thankful for rain in his opening match of the Australian hard-court tennis championship in Adelaide yesterday.

The former Wimbledon, US and Australian Open champion, fighting his way back after a poor 1997, trailed Armenian Sargis Sargisan 4-6 2-3 when the skies opened.

The match is scheduled to resume today when Agassi will hope to turn the match around and give him valuable match practice in the build-up to the Australian Open in Melbourne later this month.

Australian Mark Woodforde knocked out another American, Jim Courier, 7-5 6-2 in the first round and then advised his victim to "relax and not practice too much".

Courier has long been regarded as one of the tour's hardest trainers with a strict fitness regime and enormous powers of concentration, but Woodforde said he felt the arrival of Pete Sampras on the world stage had unsettled Courier, who finished 1992 as number one and remained there for 17 weeks in 1993.

"He worked at becoming number one so long and so hard and a different type of player came along, which was Pete Sampras, who was a little more gifted than Jim, and was able to topple him a bit," Woodforde said.

"Maybe that whole period when he was a number one player just took a toll, mentally and physically. You just can't keep pounding and pounding physically like he has.

"Maybe if he looks at it a little bit differently and doesn't spend so much time on the court, so much time in the gym, he might get that edge back."

Greg Rusedski followed Tim Henman into the second round of the Qatar Open in Dohar yesterday with a straight-sets win over Spaniard Juan Albert Viloca. The Canadian-born left-hander ranked six in the world overpowered Viloca, ranked 73rd 6-4 6-4. Rusedski is top seed at the tournament following the withdrawal of Yevgeny Kafelnikov.