Australian Open: Five-set workout for Sampras

Pete Sampras reached the last 16 at the Australian Open - but went the long way round to get there.

After two four-set matches in rounds one and two, "Pistol Pete" had to go to five sets today as his quest to take a 14th Grand Slam continued.

On by far the hottest day of the championship so far, Sampras finally got the better of Argentina's Juan Ignacio Chela 6-4 4-6 4-6 7-5 6-2.

While defending champion Andre Agassi has so far spent only four hours five minutes on court, Sampras has had to battle for nine hours 26 minutes.

"I am definitely earning my pay cheque this week," said Sampras, "but I can only kick myself for letting my game slip.

"It felt like I was playing on hot coals out there, but I got careless and you can't afford to do that. Before you know it you're in a dogfight.

"There's definitely room for improvement, but physically I feel I am coming through pretty well and any time I am still in a tournament I think I can win it."

Agassi looked prepared for his first struggle of the week when he saved an incredible six set points before winning a first set tie-break 11-9 against David Prinosil, but even by then the heat had taken so much out of the German that he lost the next five games and retired.

Sampras next plays his fellow American Todd Martin, runner-up to him in 1994 and conqueror of 13th seed Cedric Pioline today.

It has the makings of another tough affair. Martin is a man who has never been known to go down without a fight and last year at Wimbledon, for instance, he extended Agassi to 10-8 in the final set.

Agassi, meanwhile, tackles shirt-ripping Australian Andrew Ilie in the fourth round. If both he and Sampras win, they meet in the quarter-finals.

In the same half, second seed Marat Safin - the 20-year-old Russian who beat Sampras in the final of last year's US Open - is looking better with every round.

A straight-sets victory over Czech Michal Tabara put Safin through to face 14th seed Solovakian Dominik Hrbaty, one match away now from his first Grand Slam quarter-final.