French Open champion Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario was thrashed 6-2 6-2 by Austria's Barbara Schett at the Australian Open in Melbourne yesterday but the most embarrassing performance of the day was served up by Anna Kournikova.
The Russian accumulated 31 double faults against Japan's Miho Saeki but somehow managed to avoid the same fate as women's fourth seed Sanchez Vicario and men's eighth seed Greg Rusedski, beaten 6-4 6-7 7-6 6-2 by American Paul Goldstein.
Petr Korda blasted away Spain's Julian Alonso 6-3 6-1 6-1 but the Czech champion had to endure taunts from spectators over the positive dope test that has cast a shadow over his title defence.
Old campaigner Andre Agassi eliminated Czech Slava Dosedel 7-6 6-2 6-0 in a display reminiscent of the former champion's best.
The fifth seed pounced on Dosedel's serve in a manner reminiscent of his past battles with world number one Pete Sampras, whose absence this year has made the tournament the most open Open in recent memory.
Agassi is revelling in a pressurefree half of the draw that means he will not face a seed - either Todd Martin or Yevgeny Kafelnikov - until the semi-finals.
"It took me a while to settle into the match, and then it felt quite good," said Agassi, who was a shadow of his former self a year ago after sliding to 141 in the world rankings in late 1997.
Agassi is now ranked sixth and bookmakers have him joint favourite with Australian Mark Philippoussis.
"I regard every Grand Slam from here to the end of my career as an opportunity," Agassi said. "I certainly don't mind that Pete's not here. I'm not a bright guy, but I'm not stupid."
The astonishing performance by 12th seed Kournikova was one of the most excruciating in Grand Slam history and dominated conversation until Schett's second round victory.
Schett had beaten Sanchez Vicario in a Sydney warm-up tournament last week and the Spaniard succumbed in just 55 minutes on a windy outside showcourt at Melbourne Park.
"I'm very surprised because I thought she is definitely going to play a lot better at a Grand Slam, even if I beat her last week," Schett said.
Rusedski was out-thought in an enthralling outside court encounter against Goldstein, a qualifier playing in only his 10th match on the professional tour.
The slightly-built Goldstein beat the big left-hander 6-4 6-7 7-6 6-2 to leave just eight seeds including lone Briton Tim Henman in the men's draw. Goldstein revelled in his position as a complete unknown.
"So who's Paul Goldstein?" he was asked at a news conference. "Paul Goldstein's from Rockville, Maryland. He has two of the most supportive parents in the world, two wonderful brothers and he's feeling pretty good right now," he shot back.
Women's defending champion Martina Hingis was also all smiles after beating Russian newcomer Elena Dementieva 6-3 6-2 after another easy workout.
Other winners on the fourth day of the tournament included former world number ones Steffi Graf and Monica Seles who is yet to lose a match in the Open.
The old rivals, both bidding for their fifth Australian Open title, are headed for an intriguing quarter-final.
Seventh seed and 1995 champion Mary Pierce was in devastating form as she beat Luxembourg's Anne Kremer 6-2 6-1.
The Frenchwoman has lost just six games in the first two rounds and is attracting great support in Melbourne, including a group of blonde-wigged men in the court three crowd wearing the same orange tennis dress as their heroine.
Kournikova has also attracted plenty of interest, much of it since the almost total collapse of her serve in recent weeks.
In the run-up to the Open she served almost 100 double faults in six matches and in the first round her she served 23.
Kournikova bettered that rate yesterday against 80th-ranked Saeki. The former Wimbledon semi-finalist hit rock bottom, but Saeki could not capitalise on a golden chance and the Russian scraped together a 1-6 6-4 10-8 win.
"Can we talk about something nice?" Kournikova pleaded when asked about the collapse of her serve. "It's been happening for a while, so I'm kind of used to it," she said of her tennis equivalent of golf's "yips". "But I'm really frustrated by it, just like everybody watching."
Among those watching the unfolding disaster from the locker room was Kournikova's doubles partner Hingis, who said fellow players just stood there waiting for the next double fault. "It's quite funny," Hingis said.
Tenth seed Graf overcame a nervous start to beat Austria's Barbara Schwartz 4-6 6-1 6-2. Korda was clearly angered by the abuse levelled at him during his win over Alonso. "Some of the fans were using inappropriate words," Korda said. "It was something insulting, but I don't want to talk about it."
