“It’s always a good match.”The defending champion, Lindsay Davenport, the second seed, took a little time to adjust to the southpaw style of France’s Anne-Gaelle Sidot, but emerged with a 6-4, 6-4 win.Tim Henman, the British No 1, has received a milestone prize for winning five ATP tournaments at the organisation’s annual awards, held before this week’s Indian Wells Masters Series in California.Henman, who has now won seven titles, ended a two-year run of seven losing finals when he clinched his fifth in Vienna last October. He capped it with victory in Brighton the following month and clinched his first title of the new year at Copenhagen in February.Gustavo Kuerten, the winner of last year’s Champions Race, was named Player of the Year for 2000.Henman has dropped one place to 11th in the world rankings, while the American Jan-Michael Gambill nudged into the top 20 following his victory at the weekend in the final at Delray Beach. Gambill beat Belgium’s Xavier Malisse 7-5, 6-4 to win his second ATP title after Scottsdale in 1999. Kuerten keeps the No 1 spot on 4,425 points, leading Russia’s Marat Safin on 4,300, and the Americans Pete Sampras (3,080) and Andre Agassi (2,870).Lleyton Hewitt slipped from sixth to eighth place after failing to defend his Scottsdale title last week. The Australian was beaten in the semi-final by the eventual champion Francisco Clavet, of Spain..

Taking his cue from a couple of other athletes, Pete Sampras doesn’t intend to retire anytime soon. Taking his cue from a couple of other athletes, Pete Sampras doesn’t intend to retire anytime soon.
The six-time Wimbledon champion turns 30 on August 12 and admits he’s getting on in “tennis years.”"Most guys at 29, 30, have historically stopped. But you look at great players in other sports – Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky – played until they were 35, 36. I could do that,” Sampras said on Monday after opening the Masters Series tournament with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over David Prinosil.Sampras got Gretzky’s take on turning 30.”As you get older, you hear that you’re not winning as much, things like that; it’s only normal to hear that,” Sampras said. “Talking a little bit to Wayne over the course of time, when he hit 30, people were saying he was washed up.”If anything, it made him more motivated. Now it’s made me more motivated to be at the top of the game or somewhere near it.”Sampras’ methodical victory over Prinosil ended a three-match losing streak, his longest in four years.After losing to Todd Martin in the fourth round of the Australian Open, Sampras was beaten by Chris Woodruff at Memphis, Tennessee, and Andrew Ilie at Scottsdale, Arizona, last week.”I’ve been struggling a little bit over the past couple of weeks,” Sampras said “Today I felt like I got my game going I was serving well.

It was a pretty solid effort.”Andre Agassi also won his opening match, defeating Hicham Arazi 6-3, 6-2 Last year, Arazi eliminated world No. 1 Agassi with a three-set victory in the first round at Indian Wells.”I went from playing great in January last year to struggling for a while,” Agassi said, looking back to his early departure from the 2000 tournament. “There’s no question that tonight I was a lot better than I was here last year.”In the women’s competition, Venus and Serena Williams, Martina Hingis and Lindsay Davenport all took straight-set victories to advance to the quarterfinals.The top-seeded Hingis defeated Barbara Schett 6-3, 7-6 (4), while defending champion and No 2 Davenport beat Lisa Raymond 6-4, 6-2. Third-seeded Venus Williams eliminated Rachel McQuillan 6-4, 6-2, and No. 4 Serena Williams defeated Magdalena Maleeva 6-3, 6-2.Venus Williams, last year’s Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion, said she’s making progress this year.”My game’s doing very well I’m doing a lot better as this year’s gone on,” she said.

“This is my third event and I feel a lot better about my game.”Results from the Masters Series tournament (seedings in parentheses):Singles, Men, Purse: $2.95 millionFirst RoundPete Sampras (3), United States, def. David Prinosil, Germany, 6-4, 6-4.Andre Agassi (4), United States, def. Hicham Arazi, Morocco, 6-3, 6-2.Alex Corretja (8), Spain, def. Gaston Gaudio, Argentina, 3-6, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4).Arnaud Clement (13), France, def Andrew Ilie, Australia, 6-0, 6-3.Carlos Moya, Spain, def. Michael Chang, United States, 6-4, 6-4.Nicolas Kiefer, Germany, def.