14 October 2004	Thursday	28 Sha'aban 1425

VIENNA, Oct 13: Paradorn Srichaphan made the transition from Asia to the European autumn indoor arena without a hitch on Wednesday, opening his account at the 682,750-euros BA-CA trophy with a defeat of a former French Open champion.

The 2002 Roland Garros winner Albert Costa was unable to get past the fifth-seeded Thai, suffering a 6-4, 6-4 defeat. The mainly empty Stadthalle began to fill up as the opening match progressed, with Paradorn at one stage winning 11 consecutive points in the first set to earn a 5-4 lead with a break.

There was little that the 29-year-old Costa could do on his way out of the tournament; it was the Spaniard's fifth straight defeat in the opening round dating back to Long Island in August.

Paradorn is in the middle of an eight-week run of tournaments which began in China, moved to Davis Cup in Moscow, then returned to the Far East for events at home in Bangkok and last week in Tokyo.

The Vienna debutant will play non-stop, following on from here to Madrid, Basel and Paris. The Thai is hoping to buck up his form from a current 25th ranking after cracking the Top 15 last season.

The victory over Costa puts the Asian ace on 42 victories in 2004, with the magic 50 starting to loom after 49 wins at the end of last year. Number 3 German Rainer Schuettler was the only other seed on court, opening against an Austrian challenge from Juergen Melzer.

Schuettler caught fire last season for a top 10 place but has had a dismal campaign in 2004, with first-round defeats in four of his last five events to stand just 25-26 on the year.

In other matches, Tokyo finalist Taylor Dent will try to pull his game together after running out of strength in a loss on Sunday to Jiri Novak. The American plays untested Austrian Konstantin Gruber, competing in just his second ATP-level match this season. Swede Thomas Enqvist was taking on Czech Bohdan Ulihrach in the first round.

FIRST ROUND RESULTS (PREFIX NUMBER DENOTES SEEDING): 5-Paradorn Srichaphan (Thailand) beat Albert Costa (Spain) 6-4 6-4

Playing later: Taylor Dent (U.S.) v Konstantin Don Gruber (Austria) Thomas Enqvist (Sweden) v Bohdan Ulihrach (Czech Republic) 3-Rainer Schuettler (Germany) v Juergen Melzer (Austria) Glenn Weiner (U.S.) v Alexander Peya (Austria)

KREMLIN CUP RESULTS

MOSCOW: First and second round results from the $2.3 million Kremlin Cup ATP/WTA tennis tournament on Wednesday (prefix number denotes seeding, * denotes new results):

MEN

Second round: 8-Nikolay Davydenko (Russia) beat Sargis Sargsian (Armenia) 6-2 6-4

First round: Igor Andreev (Russia) beat 4-Vincent Spadea (U.S.) 6-4 4-6 6-4 7-Filippo Volandri (Italy) beat Robin Soderling (Sweden) 3-6 6-1 7-6 (8-6) Jonas Bjorkman (Sweden) beat David Sanchez (Spain) 4-6 6-1 6-2

WOMEN

Second round: * 6-Vera Zvonareva (Russia) beat Karolina Sprem (Croatia) 4-6 6-2 6-3 * Elena Bovina (Russia) beat Claudine Schaul (Luxembourg) 7-5 6-3 4-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) beat Michaela Pastikova (Czech Republic) 6-2 6-4 Francesca Schiavone (Italy) beat 8-Nadia Petrova (Russia) 0-6 6-3 6-4

First round: Dinara Safina (Russia) beat Anna Chakvetadze (Russia) 6-4 1-6 6-3. -Agencies