Rusedski has Agassi in his sights

Greg Rusedski set up a second-round encounter with Andre Agassi after easing through his opening match at the Nasdaq-100 Tennis Open in Miami.

Rusedski beat Armenian Sargis Sargsian 6-3, 6-4 in 61 minutes after winning 84 per cent of points on his first serve and hitting 20 winners.

Agassi, the former world No 1, has beaten Rusedski in their last three meetings, most recently at Scottsdale, but the British No 2 said: "I'm looking forward to the match. I started playing-well in the last couple of games in the match against Andre in Scottsdale.

"I felt my high standard was coming back so hopefully I can carry that through to when we play tomorrow.

"We've played some tough matches in the past and it would be a great win if I could pull it off."

Austrian Markus Hipfl was a surprise 7-6, 6-4 winner against South African veteran Wayne Ferreira and Brazilian Fernando Meligeni thrashed Slovak Karol Kucera 6-2, 6-0. There was a similarly comfortable straight sets win for Spain's Francisco Clavet, who swept aside Argentine Mariano Zabaleta 6-3, 6-2 in only 71 minutes.

Clavet's compatriot, Tommy Robredo, required even less time to book his passage as David Sanchez retired injured from an all-Spanish affair at 6-2, 1-0 down.

Former Olympic champion Marc Rosset had looked good in qualifying but the Swiss player was beaten 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 by Italy's Andrea Gaudenzi.