Neither Williams nor Pierce had not been especially dominating in reaching this point. Williams had dropped a set to Alexandra Stevenson and Rita Grande, and was pushed fairly hard by Kim Clijsters, while Pierce was also forced to escape three set jams against Corina Morariu and Elena Likhovtseva. One suspected that whoever raised her game to something resembling championship form would emerge victorious. Finally it was Pierce who came out sharp and confident while Williams was dull and shaky, and the affair was over quickly in just 57 minutes.

Serena's best moment was actually in the first game of the match. Serving, she fell behind 30-40 but served her way out of trouble (she had used her serve to bail her out of jams in her three previous matches as well) with three straight aces to hold her serve. However, Williams got in trouble again on her own serve at 2-2, 0-40, and was unable to recreate the magic. Williams did pull to 30-40 on consecutive service winners, but then put a forehand in the net. She was now down 2-3 and a break, and was to win only one game in the rest of the match.

Williams said in her post-match comments that Pierce was "nearly impeccable". Pierce didn't quite agree: she rated her performance an 8 or a 9 out of 10. "You can always get better. I want to take this match and not make a big deal out of it, just use it to show that my hard work is paying off and keep it going from there." I thought that Pierce indeed played extremely well. She committed only 9 unforced errors (perhaps a record for the sometimes wild "Frenchwoman"!), compared to 10 winners according to the official stats (a number that I think underestimates Mary's total). Most of her winners came from the backhand side, as she was striking her two-handers cleanly and accurately. Pierce also seemed to be moving better than she used to, although she says there is still room for improvement there: "I think I'm moving OK, but I think I can move faster." And she was also reading Serena's serves well, getting many first serves back in play and deep, and hitting clean winners off second serves.

Coincidentally or not, Pierce's current good run of form -- she is in a semifinal for the second straight tournament -- comes just after she took some time off to train with her father, Jim Pierce, who has been banned from attending WTA events because of his aggressive vociferousness and is generally considered one of the archetypal "bad dads" of tennis. When asked about the time with her father, Pierce replied, without mentioning her father specifically, "I feel now the training is what I need to get the best out of me, to train hard and have the right intensity, to have fun on the court." You had to know that the press corps would not let it go at that, and a follow-up question was asked about training with her father. Patiently and in a measured tone Mary replied: "The way I feel about it is that the relationship with my father has and always will be something very personal and private. I think the best thing for us is to keep the relationship that way.... I would appreciate it if you could keep my relationship like that." So we leave Mary Pierce in peace, and wonder to ourselves if a renewed relationship with her oft-vilified father has given her game new life....

As for Serena, it was a puzzlingly inept performance on her part. Her serve, which reached 121 mph against Clijsters, lost a lot of its bite today. Her forehand let her down consistently in the first set, and by time the second set came around neither the forehand nor the backhand was working. Her movement was quite sluggish. Reporters tried to ask Williams why things went so sour, but a devastated and surly Serena gave them no clue. Pierce did offer this telling comment: "I didn't see the raging intensity of the Serena that I played against twice in the past."

Serena Williams is a real emotional girl, and her demeanor in her press conferences varies to the extremes: euphoric after a win, and curt/snappy/bitterly disappointed after her losses. Today it was the latter, and the consensus of reporters was that she was fighting back tears. When she was asked if she was as confident now as she has been in the past, she replied sarcastically, "My confidence right now is really soaring. I feel like I can fly." At this point Williams decided she had been tortured enough and walked out of the press conference.

Serena will indeed fly... from her former home state to her new home state of Florida for the Ericsson Open. Mary Pierce now moves to the semifinals against Martina Hingis, who has yet to come close to dropping a set here and was as expeditious as Pierce in dispatching Monica Seles, 6-3, 6-1. Seles started well, leading the first set 3-2 and worrying Hingis's notoriously attackable serve. But Monica was slow and inept the rest of the way (13 wunners and 26 unforced errors), and Martina's deadly placement (22 winners, 14 unforced errors) continually exposed Monica's poor movement that has been caused by a lack of physical training. After the match Seles said her biggest problem was her serve, but I'd say that should be the least of her worries. Anyway, Hingis-Pierce in the semifinals should provide a better show than either of today's quarterfinals, provided that they play as fluently as they did today.

Tennis is a sport based on one-on-one matches, so it happens that even a brilliant performer like Pete Sampras, the dominant player of the last decade, will run into the odd nemesis here and there. One of the few who gives Pete fits is the lean, smooth-stroking South African Wayne Ferreira. Ferreira had won four of his last five encounters against Sampras, but the American star hoped he had broken Wayne's spell with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 win in their most recent match, just two hours west of here in Los Angeles last year. Make it two in a row, as Sampras had to come from behind in a third set tie-break to squeak out a win over Ferreira today.

The first set, won by Ferreira 6-3, indicated that the freckled redhead might still have some of his magic left. He returned Sampras's vaunted serve remarkably: Sampras commented after the match, "I was serving big, 128 or 130, and he was getting it back pretty easily." Wayne also succeeded in working to Pete's backhand side and creating the open court to the forehand. Sampras sometimes lures his opponents into this strategy so he can finish the point with his trademark running forehand, but he was misfiring on his favourite shot in the first set. As we shall see, he found the range with the forehand as the match went on, when he needed it most.

Sampras got off to a better start in the second set, breaking Ferreira in game three, and served for the set at 5-4. He was unable to hold, however, and Ferriera forced a tie-break. Now having to win the tie-break to stay in the match, Sampras started strong on the first point, running around his backhand to whip a forehand winner down the line. He later stretched the lead to 4-1 when Ferreira threw in a costly double fault. Sampras stayed in front until the finish, closing with back-to-back service winners out wide to win the tie-break 7-4 and force a decisive third set.

As in the second set, Pistol Pete got an early break, but lost the advantage when Ferreira broke back in game four. The two held serve the rest of the way, but not without some touchy moments. Notably, Sampras had a match point with Ferreira serving at 4-5, but the South African pulled out of the jam, and the two marched on to a tie-break which would decide the match. Here is the play by play:

• 0-0, PS serving: double fault (!)
• 1-0 WF: WF serves and volleys, PS's forehand pass is long
• 2-0 WF: WF service winner out wide
• 0-3 PS: Service winner down the middle
• 1-3 PS: WF sends a second serve backhand return wide
• 3-2 WF: WF approaches net, PS nets a running forehand pass attempt
• 4-2 WF: WF's routine crosscourt backhand goes wide (a CRUCIAL error)
• 3-4 PS: a body serve on second serve jams WF whose return lands short
• 4-4 PS: WF nets a difficult running backhand pass attempt
• 4-5 WF: PS nails a running cross-court forehand winner (a CRUCIAL shot)
• 4-6 WF: service winner down the middle
• 6-5 PS: WF runs down a short volley, but PS's second volley forces WF to try a scrambling half-volley from mid-court that he can't convert. Game set and match Sampras. WF smashes his racquet on the ground as PS pumps fist

Note that Ferreira got ahead, but opened the door to Pete with the backhand error ar 4-2, and Pete definitively took an option on the match with his key forehand winner at 5-4. "The forehand definitely kind of saved me today," admitted the winner. It was a hot day and a tiring match for someone lacking recent match play, as Sampras is, and now he has to come back tomorrow to face another feisty player from Africa, qualifier Byron Black. "Not having played many matches this year, I thought I handled the heat pretty well. I mean, we were both a little bit tired. I certainly hope I can recover OK for tomorrow." There are things to improve on for Sampras if he is to win, notably the serve (8 aces and 12 double faults), but he has won two matches and the draw seems to have opened up for him quite nicely with Agassi out and seeds falling at a dizzying pace.

A second round duel between two of the tour's "nice guys", both on the rebound. Rafter is playing his third tournament since a five-month hiatus to recover from shoulder surgery, and this week is under the watchful eye of his girl friend Lara and Australia's assistant Davis Cup captain Tony Roche. Corretja is trying to recover from a disastrous year of illnesses and poor play that saw him fall from #3 to the 20s in the ATP rankings, not to mention a humiliating 6-0, 6-0, 6-1 loss to Lleyton Hewitt at the 2000 Australian Open. It turned out to be a dandy match -- "a hell of a match", in Corretja's words -- with Rafter showing quite well and Corretja magnificent in a counterpunching role.

The first set stayed on serve throughout. Rafter's serve-volley game was good enough to make his serve impenetrable, while Corretja was too dominant on the baseline points that were the norm when he served. It was not spectacular tennis, but an enjoyable contrast in styles. The tie-break's turning point came when, with Rafter leading 2-1, the Australian lost both points on his serve thanks to excellent counter-attacking by Alex (a brilliant backhand return up the line, followed by a forehand pass at which Rafter stabbed in vain). Corretja closed out his first set point with an overhead following a Rafter defensive lob, clinching the tie-break by a 7-3 score.

We finally had a service break in the 11th game of the second set, and it went Rafter's way. With the score 30-30, Patrick put on a burst of speed to track down a Corretja drop volley and knock a backhand winner up the line, and then converted on the break point on a rare Corretja baseline error. Rafter then promptly held serve at love, taking the second set 7-5, and we headed to the third set.

In the third set Rafter faded a bit, while Corretja made him pay with an array of dynamite passing shots and returns. Corretja broke Rafter's serve in the opening game, and again in the final game of the match. The two men greeted each other with a very warm accolade after the match, and the crowd rose to applaud both for their fine performances. Incidentally, both Corretja and Rafter appreciated the high quality stuff as much as the fans did. Corretja said that "Pat was playing real good tennis. I'm glad to see that Pat is coming much better." Rafter, in his press conference, said "Alex was playing really well. I don't know if he'd say the same about me." When I told him he did, and read Alex's quote to him, Rafter smiled and pumped both fists in the air. Like I said, nice guys.

The Rafter report card: he's serving fine, with no apparent signs of shoulder difficulties, although Corretja said that Rafter told him it was a "little bit sore near the end" of the two and a half hour match. The net game is OK, and the serve-volley was not bad at all, and he is moving very well on court. But he seems to have difficulty manufacturing attacking situations out of baseline rallies: his groundstroking and returns are still a bit iffy, and his approach shots sometimes tend to fall too short. At net, I thought his anticipation was good but sometimes a bit slow, showing the signs of limited match play. Rafter himself says he feels it will be about a month until he completely fully recovers his match toughness and technique, "and then it's all mental."

The Corretja report card: he may be getting back to where he was two years ago. He certainly seems to have recovered his vim and vigour, as he was as sprightly at the end of the match as at the beginning, and hit some spectacular running winners from both sides. The potency of Alex's serves surprised Rafter: one of them reached 131 mph, a career fastest serve for the Spaniard. Corretja also made Rafter pay for any short second serves with strong returns, and dominated the baseline rallies with deep and varied shots. It's certainly a big improvement from the humiliating drubbing to Hewitt in Melbourne, which Corretja has been able to put behind him. "We were lucky that we played Davis Cup afterwards, I started to feel much better on the court.... It's always difficult to pass through these moments. It is nice to see I'm still alive in the sport, no?" Yes, definitely, Alex!

Alex's third round opponent will be the cagey French magician Fabrice Santoro. Corretja has usually been unshaken by Santoro's unorthodox game: the Spaniard has won four of the five times they have played.

With all the upsets here in the first two rounds, the draw looks a bit odd now. In the top quarter, the only remaining seed is Lapentti (8); the second quarter is left with only Norman (6); the sole survivors in the third quarter are Philippoussis (12) and Costa (14); while Enqvist (10) and Sampras (2) are left standing in the bottom quarter. In other words, 10 of the 16 seeds have failed to live up to their billing.

Here are some quotes from today's seeded losers, trying to make sense of the carnage:

- Gustavo Kuerten (lost to Tommy Haas): "I just came from a lot of matches, arrived here only one day before I start. I played with the power I had, couldn't do more than this."
- Lleyton Hewitt (lost to Byron Black): "Last week I had a couple of tough matches, no doubt about that. Last night's was tough against Moya as well. I definitely wasn't feeling at my best. I've felt a lot worse before as well."
- Tim Henman (lost to Sébastien Grosjean): "'A struggle' is the best way to describe the whole match. I just wanted desparately to get through that match so I could give myself another match tomorrow and hopefully improve on my game."
- Greg Rusedski (lost to Max Mirnyi): "I wasn't really pressured on my service games except for the two bad ones I played. It's disappointing because it was a great opportunity, the draw had opened up with Agassi losing. To lose a match like that is tough, but he played well."
- Pat Rafter (lost to Corretja) was the most upbeat of all the fallen seeds despite his defeat, as he felt it was his strongest outing since his return from surgery: "I was hitting the ball really well and the shoulder felt OK."
- Rios and Kafelnikov (lost to Zabaleta and Schalken): we'll never know their innermost thoughts from today, as it seems nobody wanted to interview them....