Playing her first tournament since her father died, Monica Seles was in top form Tuesday,taking 51 minutes to rout her first-round opponent 6-0, 6-2 in the French Open.
Seles, a former champion who is seeded sixth this time, appeared on the way to a shutout, reaching 5-0 in the second set, before Anne Ell-wood of Australia broke her and then held her for only two games.Seles' father, coach and mentor, Karolj Seles, died May 14 of cancer.
In the men's draw, one former champion had an easy day, and one had an awful one.
Returning to the scene of his out-of-nowhere victory last year, defending champ Gustavo Kuerten swept into the second round with a straight-set win on Center Court.
Using his trademark laser-sharp baseline strokes, Kuerten barely broke a sweat to defeat Charles Auffray of France, a wild-card entry who is ranked 195th in the world, 6-0, 6-2, 6-2. The Brazilian ended the match on an unreachable drop shot.
Still, the atmosphere was hardly the same as the last time Kuerten was here, when a samba band serenaded him and crowds chanted his nickname, "Guga! Guga!" This time, the stadium was only half full due to cold weather and the match's early starting time.
Two-time former champion Sergi Bruguera of Spain - Kuerten's opponent in the finals last year - wasn't as lucky. Bruguera lost 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 to Hernan Gumy of Argentina.
"I was very tired," a dejected Bruguera said. "I didn't have the will to win."
Andre Agassi was also to play Tuesday, as was the second-seeded Petr Korda, who could take the world No. 1 ranking away from Pete Sampras with a victory here.
This year, again, Sampras is speaking optimistically.
"I'm doing whatever I can, not only this year, but every year I play, to win one time," he said Monday. "I feel like I can."
Again this year things have started out well. Despite the slow clay, which favors patient players, Sampras used his classic serve-and-volley game Monday to score an easy victory over his friend Todd Martin. He served 12 aces, six in the third set, at speeds up to 127 mph.
"It's my only choice, to try to play the way I play on hard courts," Sampras said after the 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 win. "I'm not going to stay back and win this tournament. I know that I need to come in.
One player who doesn't need any help getting motivated is Martina Hingis. The women's top seed breezed into the second round Monday. No. 3 Jana Novotna also advanced, as did No. 10 seed and defending champion Iva Majoli, and perhaps the two most closely watched women this year: American Venus Williams and Russian Anna Kournikova.