SportsLine wire reports
Jan. 16, 1999

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Defending Australian Open champion Petr Korda faces a fourth-round replay of last year's final against Chile's Marcelo Rios after the draw on Friday set up an intriguing season-opening Grand Slam event.

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In the women's draw, world No. 1 Lindsay Davenport was drawn to meet aggressive young American and fifth seed Venus Williams in the quarterfinals.

In a tantalizing prospect, old foes Steffi Graf, Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario and Monica Seles were all drawn in the same quarter of the 128-strong women's field.

KORDA, WHO WILL DEFEND HIS only Grand Slam title under a drugs cloud, is unseeded after his ranking slipped to 21st in the world and plays Spaniard Galo Blanco in the first round.

World No. 2 Rios was named top seed in the absence of a resting Pete Sampras and faces Italian Gianluca Pozzi in the first round.

Rios pulled out of a warm-up event in Auckland this week but faces a relatively smooth passage to the fourth round, while Korda faces 15th seed and 1994 Open finalist Todd Martin in the third round.

Ironically, Martin spoke on behalf of the players after a scheduled meeting of the ATP players council on Saturday which discussed Korda's positive steroid test and subsequent light penalty that saw him escape a one-year ban.

Tournament organizer Paul McNamee said Rios had arrived in Melbourne and was confident the temperamental Chilean would take his place despite the injury.

"HE'S IN TOWN AND HE'S booking practice courts," McNamee told reporters.

Steffi Graf is in the same draw as Monica Seles and Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario. (AP)

The men's draw also sees a possible replay of the all-Australian 1998 U.S. Open final between Pat Rafter and Mark Philippoussis in the fourth round.

Third seed Rafter meets Oliver Gross in the first round while big-serving Philippoussis, the 14th seed, meets American Geoff Grant.

Philippoussis' likely second-round opponent however is 1989 French Open champion and world No. 28 Michael Chang.

In the women's draw, world No. 2 Martina Hingis takes on little-known American Lilia Osterloh in the first round, while top seed Davenport meets Spain's Gala Leon Garcia.

Hingis, eager to reclaim the No. 1 spot she surrendered to Davenport after losing last year's U.S. Open final to the slimmed-down American, faces a relatively smooth passage through the bottom half of the draw to the semifinals.

At the top of the same half of the women's draw are Graf, Seles and Sanchez-Vicario, between them the winners of 34 Grand Slam titles.

WORLD NO. 6 SELES -- unbeaten in 28 matches in Melbourne after winning the title in 1991-93 and 1996, meets a qualifier in the first round and then will be on course for a probable quarterfinal against either Graf or Sanchez-Vicario.

Fourth seed Sanchez-Vicario meets South Africa's Mariaan de Swardt in the first round. Tenth-seeded Graf, on the comeback trail after a prolonged period of injury and unsettled life off the court, takes on Paola Suarez of Argentina.

Success would see the pair of old foes meet in the fourth round, with Seles looming and then Hingis in the semifinals.