Three-times winner Boris Becker dismissed Australian Mark Woodforde yesterday and will now face Pete Sampras, the player he rates as the best ever, in the second round of the Paris indoor event. The 30-year-old German, currently 38th in the world rankings, took just over a hour to beat Woodforde 6-2 6-4 and earn his clash with the world number one and top seed.
Against the 32-year-old Australian, Becker, sometimes serving as hard as in his best days, was only briefly in trouble at the beginning of the second set, when he trailed 3-1.
But he took Woodforde's service back straightaway, broke again in the ninth game, served for the match and called it a night on his first match point.
Winner of the inaugural Paris Open in 1986, Becker won it again in 1989 and 1992 but lost his last final here in 1995 to Sampras, his second round opponent today. In his first set against Woodforde, it took him hardly 25 minutes to win five games in sucession, much to the pleasure of the French crowd anticipating his next match.
Fabrice Santoro, 24, who recently won the first tournament of his career in Lyon, beat Swede Magnus Larsson 0-6 6-4 7-6 to snatch his first victory in five tries at the indoor arena in Bercy.
Nineteen-year-old Arnaud Clement also confirmed his status as a rising force when he beat former Olympic champion Marc Rosset of Switzerland 5-7 6-2 6-4.
