Today's results at Indian Wells brought some sour news to the tournament director, Charlie Pasarell. The top draw on the men's side, defending champion and fourth seed Andre Agassi, crashed out at the first hurdle. Agassi was the victim of a 22-year-old ex-hockey player out of Ostermundigen, Switzerland, 44th-ranked Michel Kratochvil, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (8-6).

Agassi was repeatedly caught flat-footed by the down-the-line drives and excellent returns of the Swiss, an aggressive baseliner somewhat in the Agassi mold who had an impressive total of 37 winners today. One of those winners came on match point, a fearless down-the-line blast.

Agassi sometimes seemed slow moving to the ball, and at one point called for the trainer to massage a sore thigh. After the match the American seemed unconcerned about the tightness in his thigh, putting it down to his recent busy schedule. "I think it's been a little bit of fatigue. You know, there hasn't been a lot of tennis for five months, and then there's been a lot of it in the last couple of weeks. You expect it. There's nothing here that I'm by any means overly concerned about." Meanwhile, the happy Kratochvil was justifiably proud of his best-ever win and his bold play. "I had just a lot of courage in the big points," beamed the happy Swiss. "I just went for them."

Next up for the upset demon in the second round is another former number one: the enigmatic Marcelo Ríos.

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Marcelo Ríos def. Ivan Ljubicic, 7-6 (7-5), 7-5
First round
Stadium
Previous head-to-head: Ríos leads 2-0

The talented and mercurial Marcelo Ríos (pictured at right) started his tournament today on a positive note against the 6' 4" (1.93 m) bomber from Croatia, Ivan Ljubicic, in the first match on the stadium court. Ríos was the champion here in 1998, a result that helped to propel him to a 5-week reign as number one shortly thereafter. "El Chino" had launched 2002 in promising fashion, with a quarterfinal appearance at the Australian Open, but was coming off early round losses to his nemesis Mariano Zabale ta at clay court tourneys in Chile and Argentina. Ríos had defeated Ljubicic two months ago in Sydney in a third set tie-break, so we expected another close battle here.

The first set was somewhat lacking in drama, as neither player managed to obtain a single break point on the other's serve. So it was odd that in the first set tie-break both had a devil of a time holding serve: the receiver won 8 of the 12 points. Ríos set up a double set point in the tie-break when he ran down a Ljubicic drop shot and coverted a second volley. At 6-4 Ríos double faulted, then watched as Ljubicic returned the favour with his first double fault of the match, handing the set to "El Chin o".

The double fault miseries continued in the second set for the Croat, who was taking big chances with his second serve. At 1-2, Ljubicic lost his serve in a long, 5-deuce game that contained 3 double faults. Ríos immediately gave back the break in his most sloppy game of an otherwise clean match by the Chilean.

The players stayed on serve until what proved to be the final game of the match. Ljubicic got off to a 40-15 lead and it looked as though another tie-break would be called for. But Ríos met a 130 mph serve with a splendid forehand return that landed on the sideline, much to Ljubicic's dismay. 40-30: Ljubicic double faults. Deuce: The Croat serves and comes to net, but can't handle Ríos's backhand pass. Match point: after a hopping mid-court Ríos backhand, Ljubicic misfires with a backhand. Make the final: 7-6, 7-5 Ríos.

Ríos is now at least assured of going at least a round further than last year, when he lost in the first round to eventual semifinalist Yevgeny Kafelnikov. If he can hold his good form of today, the Chilean could profit from a friendly draw. Because of the upset of Agassi and the injury withdrawal of Goran Ivanesivic (his recurring shoulder injury), there are no seeded players in Marcelo's path to the quarterfinals.

Fabrice Santoro def. Sébastien Grosjean (6), 6-3, 4-6, 7-5
First round
Stadium 3
Previous head-to-head: Santoro leads 7-2

Nicolas Escudé warned us about fratricidal French duels last year, after he had defeated then-higher ranked Arnaud Clément right here in Indian Wells. "French versus French, it's very difficult. The first ones are worried about the second ones." As if we needed more proof, we saw another instance of an odd Franco-French match today. It was a meltdown of epic proportions by the favoured Sébastien Grosjean, who blew a 5-1 third set lead by dropping the last 6 games to lose to Fabrice Santoro in the most lamentable of ways.

The first two sets were evenly played between these two undersized but skilled Davis Cup teammates. Santoro got off to a fast start to take the first set, confounding Grosjean with his tactical variation and his tricky two-handed sliced forehands. As the second set developed, however, the speedy Sébastien started to solve Fabrice's trickery, and find the range with his trademark whipping forehands.

In the third set Grosjean continued to grow in confidence, while Santoro's errors mounted. When Grosjean took a 5-1 lead on yet another Santoro error and prepared to serve for the match, the end seemed imminent.

Suddenly it all went completely wrong for Grosjean. In the blink of an eye he metamorphosed from top-ten pro to public parks hacker. For the rest of the match Grosjean did not even come close to winning a game. Overheads were shanked off the top of the frame. Routine volleys were pushed well wide. Easy forehand putaways wound up in the bottom of the net. Double faults. Mis-hits. You name it. The harder Grosjean pressed, the worse it got for him. Grosjean yelled occasionally in frustration, but the yells gradually gave way to looks of incomprehension and then resignation. Santoro, given new life, compounded Grosjean's problems with his devious changes of pace and spin, throwing his drowning opponent a cement block instead of a life raft. When Grosjean sent a routine backhand beyond the baseline on Santoro's first match point, mercifully, it was over.

Fabrice Santoro will now takes his large bag of tricks to the second round, where he will face the struggling Nicolas Kiefer, a 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 winner over wild card Taylor Dent today. As for Sébastien Grosjean, he will surely be tossing and turning in his hotel room tonight.

Daniela Hantuchova (18) def. Lisa Raymond (12), 6-4, 6-2
Quarterfinal
Stadium 2
Previous head-to-head: First meeting

Daniela Hantuchova's brilliant play in ousting third-seeded Justine Henin yesterday has made her the talk of the women's tournament. The Slovakian teenager continued on her roll today, booking a spot in the semifinals with a confident and proficient win over Amercian veteran Lisa Raymond.

Playing Raymond a day after beating Henin was not a major stylistic adjustment for Hantuchova. Like Henin, Raymond is a smallish player with a strong forehand and a one-handed backhand who likes to mix in serve-and-volley tactics with her baseline game. If anything, the determined American offered Hantuchova tougher opposition than the wobbly Henin did yesterday. But Hantuchova displayed an arsenal of weapons astonishing for an 18-year old. Searing returns, solid serving, good court movement, spectacu lar winners on the run, sure volleying, it was all there. It was very impressive stuff.

Hantuchova took excellent care of her service games, facing only 2 break points in the match, saving both. And she opportunistically cashed in on the few chances that Raymond gave her, converting on 3 of 4 break points. Unlike Hantuchova's earlier matches, there were no signs of jitters closing out the match. At 5-2, 15-15 of the second set, Hantuchova terminated the proceedings with a forehand winner and consecutive service winners. Pumping her fist in the air, the tall, leggy Slovak celebrated the c onfirmation of her breakthrough week.

It looks as though Daniela knows she now belongs at this level of competition. If she keeps that mindset, this will constitute bad news for anyone she might face. Certainly, on paper she will be the heavy favourite in her semifinal match against unseeded Emmanuelle Gagliardi, who is having a dream week of her own. The "Other Swiss Miss" had a surprisingly easy time with Anna Smashnova in today's other quarterfinal tilt, rolling to a 6-2, 6-1 win. This match was somewhat lacking in star po wer, and was played in a nearly deserted stadium at the end of the afternoon.

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Wandering in the desert

Doubles action heats up

We now know that the defending Indian Wells doubles champions will not be repeating in either the men's or women's divisions. The 2002 men's champions, Wayne Ferreira / Yevgeny Kafelnikov, caught a tough draw and were ousted in the first round by the Australian Open champions and second seeds, Mark Knowles / Daniel Nestor. The defending women's champions, Nicole Arendt / Ai Sugiyama, were here playing with different partners, but both teams have been eliminated.

A noteworthy feature of the men's field is that the former #1 doubles team of Mahesh Bhupathi / Leander Paes appear to have split up. Mahesh is playing this week with Jan-Michael Gambill, while Leander is paired with John Laffnie de Jager. Our Indian tennis guru R. Jayakrishnan reports on his web site: "Mahesh was brief in his email as usual - just saying 'it wasn't clicking'." Bad news for the many fans of the Indian Express.

The women's semifinal pairings have been decided, and look like this:

• Lisa Raymond / Rennae Stubbs (1) vs Daniela Hantuchova / Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario (6)
• Virginia Ruano Pascual / Paola Suárez (3) vs Elena Dementieva / Janette Husarova

Note that Ruano Pascual/Suárez were the losing finalists last year, and that Raymond has a chance to avenge today's singles loss to Hantuchova.

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