THE first computerised Australian Open draw yesterday has thrown up the possibility of the ideal finals Pete Sampras Boris Becker and Steffi Graf Martina Hingis.

Becker, the defending champion, was drawn away from world number one Sampras in the bottom half of the singles and faces a potential semi final with Michael Charig, whom he beat in last year's Melbourne final.

Graf, back here after missing the last two Australian Opens with injury, is seeded to meet either world number two Arantxa Sanchez Vicario or 16 year old Swiss starlet Hingis in the women's final.

Sampras, who was dumped out of the open by power serving Australian Mark Philippoussis in last year's third round, drew a qualifier in the opening round, while Becker faces up to Spaniard Carlos Moya.

After the draw, the French Open champion and fourth seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov was a surprise withdrawal after breaking a bone in his right hand in a gymnasium accident.

Open officials subsequently moved American MaliVai Washington into Kafelnikov's place in the draw. Washington was the next highest ranked player eligible to be seeded.

Sampras appears to have a tough path to the final on January 26th with the computer placing eighth seeded South African Wayne Ferreira in his quarter and the prospect of a semifinal against either third seeded Goran Ivanisevic, long time American sparring partner Jim Courier, or 11th seed and former world number one Thomas Muster of Austria.

Monica Seles has withdrawn from this year's tournament with a broken finger.

There were several intriguing match ups in Friday's draw headed by Philippoussis' clash with Britain's Tim Henman and 1995 champion Mary Pierce, unseeded this year, against Russian Elena Likhovtseva, the player who knocked her out of last year's Australian Open in the third round.

Dangerous unseeded floater Jennifer Capriati is the bottom half of the women's draw and could face Hingis in the quarter finals. Capriati's first opponent is American compatriot Jolene Watanabe.

The computerised draw, where unseeded players were randomly placed around the total of 32 men's and women's seeds in the respective 128 strong fields, was claimed by organisers to be the first in grand slam tennis.

. Pete Sampras ambled into the final of the Kooyong Classic in Melbourne yesterday after Yevgeny Kafelnikov defaulted with his broken hand.

Sampras faces Michael Chang in today's final. Kafelnikov will be out of tennis for up to six weeks.

. Unseeded Tim Henman defeated number one seed Goran Ivanisevic yesterday in a thrilling semi final round at the Sydney International tournament.

Henman, fresh from the finals of the ATP Tour event in Doha, Qatar, last weekend, mastered the big hitting Croatian's serve and turned the match into a crowd pleasing volleying game.

The up and coming Henman had never gained a finals berth in an ATP Tour final before this year.

The victory is likely to push the 22 year old into the ranks of the top 20, a remarkable effort for the player who languished at number 99 at the start of last year. He is currently ranked at a career high 24.

In the women's semi finals, a rejuvenated Jennifer Capriati consolidated her remarkable comeback effort by despatching fellow American Lindsay Davenport in a see sawing 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 bout.

Speaking after the match, number four seed Davenport was full of praise for her opponent, who is out to wipe the slate clean after facing drug and shoplifting charges when she left the Tour in 1993.

"I think everyone knows how talented and how good she can be," Davenport said. "I think it's great that she's back and playing well."

"That could be one of the great stories . . . if she turned out to be better now than she was when she was 14 or 15," she said.