Sampras back in old routine

Pete Sampras returns a shot to David Prinosil

Pete Sampras finished off David Prinosil in straight sets to reach the second round of the ATP Masters Series at Indian Wells.

Sampras came into the first of 2001's prestigious Masters Series events having lost his opening matches in Memphis, Tennessee, and Scottsdale, Arizona - defeats that stretched his losing streak to three including a fourth-round exit at the Australian Open.

The third-seeded American defeated the unseeded German 6-3 6-4.

"I feel like I've been struggling a little bit over the past couple of weeks. Today I felt like I got my game going, I was serving well. It was a pretty solid effort," said Sampras.

"All you can do when you haven't played a lot of matches is practice hard, practice with purpose. That's what I've tried to do. Usually that works out in playing pretty well, like I did today."

Sampras was joined in the second round by fourth seed Andre Agassi.

The leader in the ATP champions race was a quick 6-3 6-2 first-round winner over Hicham Arazi, a result that served as pay back for the Moroccan's first-round defeat of Agassi at Indian Wells last year.

Agassi gets revenge

Agassi also found some satisfaction in finally getting the best of a lefthander after losing his last two matches to Briton Greg Rusedski in the San Jose final and to Spaniard Francisco Clavet in the first round at Scottsdale last week.

"I think this is a week that I've always expected myself to play well," said Agassi, who reached the ATP Masters final twice in 12 tournaments.

The only men's seed to be upset on the opening day was 12th-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain.

He finally surrendered to Chilean Nicolas Massu 7-6 (7-3) 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (8-6) in a three-and-a-half hour marathon.

In other first-round matches, France's Arnaud Clement, runner-up to Agassi at the Australian Open, made quick work of Aussie Andrew Ilie 6-0 6-3.

Germany's Nicholas Kiefer defeated Switzerland's Roger Federer 3-6 7-5 6-1.

Defending champion Alex Corretja, of Spain, struggled to a 3-6 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (7-4) first round victory over Argentina's Gaston Gaudio.