Agassi puts title pressure on himself

Andre Agassi beat Hicham Arazi 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of the Tennis Masters in Indian Wells, California avenging a defeat by the Moroccan in the same tournament last year.

The Australian Open champion was happy to stay in with a chance of capturing this title for the first time, after finishing as runner-up in 1990 and 1995.

"I'm putting a lot of pressure on myself to play well here," admitted the American. "Especially because I haven't won this tournament.

"This is a week that I've always expected myself to play well. I grew up on hard courts, grew up in the desert. This seems like it's a place I should be pretty familiar with. But I have to go out and prove that."

Third-seeded American Pete Sampras, who won back-to-back Indian Wells titles in 1994-95 but hasn't gone past the quarter-finals since, is also keen to reverse his image as a player who dries up in the desert.

Sampras was on a three-match losing streak going into the event but stopped the rot with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over German David Prinosil.

"Today was a good start," said Sampras, who was beaten in the fourth round of the Australian Open and had since lost his opening matches in Memphis and Scottsdale.

"I've been struggling a little bit over the past couple of weeks. Today I got my game going, I was serving well. It was a pretty solid effort."

Defending champion Alex Corretja, the eighth seed, also reached the second round. beating unseeded Argentine Gaston Gaudio 3-6, 7-6, 7-6.

Australian Open runner-up Arnaud Clement, of France, needed just 49 minutes to beat Andrew Ilie 6-0, 6-2, the erratic Australian looking nothing like the player who defeated Sampras last week.

Britain's Greg Rusedski opens his campaign tonight against Australian Pat Rafter.

While the men were finding their feet, world No 1 and top seed Martina Hingis led the way into the women's quarter-finals with a 6-3, 7-6 victory over 16th-seeded Austrian Barbara Schett.

She'll face Italy's Silvia Farina Elia, who beat 11th-seeded German Anke Huber 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

Second seed and defending champion Lindsay Davenport beat fellow-American Lisa Raymond 6-4, 6-2 to earn a meeting with seventh-seeded Serena Williams, who defeated Magdalena Maleeva, of Bulgaria, 6-3, 6-2.

Third-seeded American Venus Williams beat Australian veteran Rachel McQuillan 6-4, 6-2 to set up a quarter-final clash with Russian Elena Dementieva, the woman she beat in the gold medal match of the Sydney Olympics.

The other quarter-final will feature 14th-seeded Belgian Kim Clijsters, who beat Japan's Ai Sugiyama 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, and Russian wildcard Elena Bovina, a 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 winner over France's Nathalie Dechy.