JEFF TARANGO is, as the Irish say, a great man for livening up a dull day. Two years ago, after a truly monumental row with the umpire Bruno Rubeuh, he was slung out of Wimbledon on his American ear, docked his prize money, and told not to darken the portals of SW19 again until this summer.

The news from the Australian Open - good or bad depending on whether you side with those in or out of high chairs - is that he will be back. Oh most definitely he will.

"This is the year of Mr Tarango," he declared, shortly after his second round defeat of Switzerland's Marc Rosset in straight sets yesterday.

So had he learned to hush his mouth? No, sir. "I'm not going to ever bite my tongue. I'm just going to rephrase it.

Tarango, who played his first Grand Slam tournament in 1988, has never progressed beyond the third round in 29 attempts, and seems unlikely to this time with big Jim Courier, the champion here in 1992 and 1993, waiting four square in his path tomorrow. "I don't think I've ever beaten Jim since I was 14."

Tarango's talents have earned him over £1 million, although it has been his special flair for controversy that has so often caught the public eye - to say nothing of many umpires and players.

He bears no grudges himself, at least not towards Wimbledon. Here, in fact, was perfect contrition. "I think Wimbledon is the greatest tournament on earth. It has a lot of prestige and hopefully I can go out there and kick some ass. . ." Oh, well, almost perfect.

Courier began the year with victory in the Doha final against Tim Henman, and is fast re capturing his Mr Mean reputation, a clear indication that he intends business.

"If we look forward this year is there a ranking goal?" Courier was asked.

"No, not that I care to share with you," replied the American.

"Perhaps if we were better friends?" the questioner mused.

"I don't think that is going to happen," responded Courier with the sort of crushing certainty that brought him two Australian and two French Open titles between 1991 and 1993.

But after finishing runner up to Pete Sampras at Wimbledon in 1993, the force was no longer with him. Sampras had his number, and others piled in behind. By the end of last year, Courier had slipped to a world ranking of 26.

He has not had a smooth passage here, taking five sets to beat the Netherland's Sjeng Schalken in the first round and another five against Slava Dosedel of the Czech Republic yesterday.

In contrast to Courier's hard eyed dourness, Tarango was loving his return to the limelight. He had spent last Wimbledon at his second home in Pezenas, France, a small town just outside Montpelier. "I heard the Dalai Lama just moved there. He's trying to get close to me I think.

Wimbledon, watch out. If Tarango learns to levitate then umpires could really be in trouble.

Pete Sampras, Goran Ivanisevic, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, and Martina Hingis were all, in their various ways, walking on air here with second round victories.

The easiest win of the day fell to Sanchez Vicario, the number two seed, whose opponent Stephanie De Ville of Belgium limped off after losing the first game. Cruel for De Ville.

The latest victory belonged to Ivanisevic who won the night match against Karol Kucera in short order. Perhaps the number three seed fancied a bit of cricket, for a few hundred yards across Flinders Park, the four huge white floodlights of the Melbourne cricket ground were blazing down on a welcome, if meaningless, Australian victory over Pakistan in the world series.

Sampras, despite making his own light work of Romania's Adrian Voinea, continues to mutter about the softness of the balls.

"I'm serving and swinging just as hard on my serve as ever and it's only going 170 kmh. I usually serve a lot faster than that, and it's because of the balls. They just seem real mushy."

Fifth seed Anke Huber became the first player through to the final 16 sweeping past Natasha Zvereva in straight sets to move a step closer to her second successive final at Melbourne Park.

Huber, ranked seven in the world but so often playing in the shadow of her top seeded German compatriot Steffi Gral, took just 65 minutes to dispose of Zvereva of Belarus 7-5 6-0.