Anna Kournikova took another step towards her personal holy grail, beating Rita Kuti Kis 6-3 6-4 to move through to the third round. The Hungarian is famous here for beating Jelena Dokic last year, which prompted Dokic to describe her as "a girl who isn't a player and never will be".
Kournikova's critics might say something similar about her, for despite the fact the Russian is high profile enough to merit a night match on centre court at Melbourne Park, she has not won a women's tour tournament of any description.
Against Kuti Kis she showed why she is unlikely to break that duck for at least a while yet. The suspect serve, the mental frailty and the brittleness of her game were there for all to see. All of this is not to say Kournikova is untalented, and she certainly leathers the ball, but with the greater depth in women's tennis now there are an awful lot of players who do that. She turns 20 in June but last reached a grand slam quarter-final in 1997.
She hit back at some critical questions yesterday by declaring "I'm improving definitely with every match" and pointing out that her current number eight world ranking is a career best. Next up is her new doubles partner, Barbara Schett.
At 18 Justine Henin is a year younger than Kournikova and is hardly a household name in her native Belgium, but she has won two tour titles already this year, the Australian hardcourt and the Canberra International. Her 6-3 6-2 victory over France's Sarah Pitkowski yesterday extended Henin's current winning streak to 12 matches.
The defending champion, Lindsay Davenport, has been looking out of sorts this week. Against Dokic in the first round, in distracting circumstances, she had an excuse for dropping a set. Against Germany's Greta Arn yesterday she looked ragged and perplexed to find herself extended to three sets, which she eventually won 6-2 4-6 6-2 .
Her fellow American Jennifer Capriati booked her third-round place in the old-fashioned way by demolishing the Dutchwoman Miriam Oremans 6-0 6-2.
In the old days of women's tennis, seeds like Capriati would use the first week as an extended practice session, fine-tuning their game against anonymous opposition. Nowadays the big names tend to be tested rather earlier.
Monica Seles still falls into that category, but only just. It seems the crowds follow her in hope rather than belief that she can ever crown her perennial comeback with another major title. She advanced yesterday by beating the Swiss Miroslava Vavrinec 6-2, 6-3. Conchita Martinez, seeded fifth, was beaten 5-7 6-3 8-6 by Switzerland's Emmanuelle Gagliardi.
Meanwhile, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras reclaimed the spotlight from their young rivals yesterday.
Agassi lived up to his reputation as the showman of tennis when he thrashed Paul Goldstein 6-1 6-3 6-1 in just 77 minutes while Sampras battled to a workmanlike 7-6 7-6 4-6 75 win over Czech Bohdan Ulihrach in the second round.
Australia's Pat Rafter, perennial British hope Tim Henman and US Open champion Marat Safin also posted predictable wins to reach the third round.
Two times US Open champion Rafter gave local fans a scare and was unhappy with the way he performed in his 6-4 2-6 6-3 7-6 win over strong young Russian Nikolay Davydenko.
Henman was much happier, saying he had produced some of the best tennis he had ever played in Melbourne to fight off Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador 6-1 7-6 7-6. He now faces British-based Australian Wayne Arthurs whose father Derek played in the Davis Cup for Ireland.
Juan Carlos Ferrero, seeded ninth, lost a see-sawing five-setter to local hero Andrew Ilie, who celebrated by tearing off his shirt and draping himself in the Australian flag after his 3-6 6-2 6-1 1-6 6-2 victory.
