Australia's Lleyton Hewitt blasted the standard of tennis umpiring after being bounced out of the Sydney International by big-serving compatriot Chris Guccione on Wednesday.

Hewitt did not concede a break point but was on the wrong end of a 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/2) loss to his Davis Cup team-mate in their second round match.

"I feel like the (Indian) cricketers, I think. What's going on with all the refs these days? Useless," Hewitt fumed.

Hewitt attacked the overall standard of umpiring in tennis as "pretty ordinary."

"I think central umpires have probably gone into their shell more so since Hawk-Eye (line-calling technology) has come in, which is fine in major tournaments.

"But at the smaller tournaments, where you don't have Hawk-Eye, you have to stand up and make decisions.

"So it's obviously tough for them because one week they've got Hawk-Eye and the next week they don't."

The former world number one now has only practice with his coach Tony Roche to maintain his level for the year's first Grand Slam, starting in Melbourne next Monday.

"I had four break points and I didn't face a break point in the whole match.... I wasn't lucky today. I just hope it all comes together next week."

Hewitt has won the Sydney tournament five times and believes he has done enough work on the court to be ready for his first match at the Open.

"I have to focus on next Monday or Tuesday and getting away to a good start and hopefully getting that first round under my belt and building on that," he said.

"I've done all the hard work and now I've just got to trust what I've been doing.

"You get a lot more chances over five sets (at Grand Slams) than you get against guys like Chris here in a three-setter. That can be a bit of a lottery really," he added.

Leading French star Richard Gasquet says he has to adjust to the heavy tennis balls used for next week's Open after his second round exit.

The world number eight and top seed crashed out to the big forehands of Russian 35th-ranked Dmitry Tursunov, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in just over two hours.

Gasquet, a touch player who knocked out Andy Roddick on the way to losing to Roger Federer in the semi-finals of last year's Wimbledon, said he is at a disadvantage hitting the heavier balls on the slower Plexicushion hardcourt surface both here and at the Open.

"It's the wrong ball for the shoulder. You have to be really strong to play with this ball," Gasquet said.

"It's not my game to be really strong. My opponent today can serve 220-225 kph (136-140 mph) but for me, it's really hard. So the (heavy) balls are not good for my game."

Gasquet said he would have to adjust in practice to the heavier Wilson balls being used at the Australian Open.

Tursunov, who now leads Gasquet 2-0 in head-to-heads, will face Sebastien Grosjean in the quarter-finals after the Frenchman beat Spanish eighth seed Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 6-4.

Veteran Frenchman Fabrice Santoro continued his strong tournament with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Belgian qualifier Steve Darcis and will next play Russian Evgeny Korolev, who eased past Czech Ivo Minar 6-2, 6-3.

Frenchman Gilles Simon went down to Czech fourth seed Tomas Berdych 7-6 (7/3), 6-2, who will face Guccione.

Meanwhile, Czech Radek Stepanek overcame Italian Andreas Seppi in three sets to set up a quarter-final against Argentina's Agustin Calleri, who knocked out fifth-seeded Spaniard Carlos Moya, 6-3, 6-4.

Andy Roddick has revealed that winning Wimbledon is his one remaining major goal after a glittering career in the game.

"I'd love to win Wimbledon some day," admitted the 25-year-old American.

"I had four major goals when I started and have accomplished three of them with the Davis Cup, US Open and number one world ranking."

HAVING helped nurture the talents of Wimbledon stars Andy and James Murray, tennis coach Ben Saunders has now turned his attention to youngsters in Crosby.

The former Scottish under-18s champion, who moved to Liverpool five years ago to be with his girlfriend-turned-wife, Lyndsey, has set up shop at Crosby Leisure Centre.

Ben said: “In April 2003, I got attached to one of the local clubs and started building up the mini-tennis side of things.

“That’s how I got started when I was seven and I realised just how important it is for kids and families to get involved.

“It really snowballed and I had about 85 kids that I was coaching weekly, with summer camps, holiday camps and all the rest of it.

“Now I run mini-tennis session for kids from four, right the way through full court tennis for 12-year-olds.

“Mini-tennis goes red, orange, green and then you play yellow ball. Red balls are on a badminton sized court, slightly bigger tennis balls, so that they’re bouncing and easier for the kids to hit.

“Then it goes to orange, which is like three-quarters the size of full tennis courts, with low compression tennis balls, which are easier to hit again and slightly slowing bouncing, and eventually they progress onto yellow.”

Ben first got his taste for the sport when he was just seven after one of the parents in his school set up classes to teach his sons.

He added: “I started playing from when I was seven and was still competing until I was about 19, albeit that I started coaching a lot more.

“Basically, the coaching was to pay for my training and competitive side of things. I was never going to be a Wimbledon star, so coaching was the next best thing.

“Competing-wise, I did OK and was No.1 in Scotland at under-18s level, as well as representing my county, the North of Scotland, which covers anywhere from Stirling right up to John ‘O’ Groats.”

But it was Ben’s encounter with Andy and James’ mum, Judy, when he was just 14 that would later lead to him playing an important part in their success on the international stage.

Ben said: “Judy coached me when I was about 14 for a couple of years and I suppose that I was friendly with the family.

“When I was about 17 or 18 and still training myself, she got me involved with some of the Scottish junior national squads, so that I could pass on some of my experience to them.

“Then I started coaching full-time when I was about 19. Within a year, I was back involved with Judy again.

“She was national coach for Scotland and I was one of her assistants, along with a team of two or three others.

“Basically, her plan was just to try and make the Scottish kids as good as possible and from that came Andy and James.”

Indoor mini-tennis lessons take place every Saturday at Crosby Leisure Centre until December 6, with plans to hold more sessions from January 5. Six-week courses cost £27 and all equipment is provided.

Ben added: “Crosby Leisure Centre has been brilliant. The facility is excellent and they’ve been really helpful there.

“Also, there is a lot of passing trade there and a lot of people who go for swimming or other things, so it’s quite a good base to have in the winter.

“Before moving down here, I always did mini-tennis for a few months while the weather was good then just abandoned it for a few months in the winter.

“But the good thing about being indoor is that instead of tennis being perceived as a summer sport for two weeks of the year, we play 12 months of the year, all year around and don't have to stop just because the weather is a bit cold.”

Ex-champion shows he can still play but won't mount a comeback

Astute readers of the sports section and watchers of "SportsCenter" may have caught it. And of those who did, some may even have taken it seriously.

Pete Sampras, 36, who won his 14th Grand Slam title five years ago, then retired from the pro tour, defeated No. 1 Roger Federer in the final of their three-match Asian exhibition series Saturday 7-6, 6-4. Federer won their first two matches 6-4, 6-3 and 7-6, 7-6.

But Sampras beat Federer.

Sampras plays Todd Martin on Saturday night at the UIC Pavillion in the FedEx Tennis Shootout, and if you think a little less hair and two kids has taken any of the competitive fire from the seven-time Wimbledon champ, well, as they say, think again.

"I had a moment walking off the court when I thought I can still play today," Sampras said by phone from his home in Beverly Hills, Calif., a day after returning from China.

There are those who think he should — that, ironically, tennis is in desperate need of the kind of drama that the best and last serve-and-volleyer in the game could provide. For those who may have forgotten, Sampras' greatness was often mistaken for dullness, especially when he was battling longtime rival Andre Agassi.

Federer, who at 26 already has won 12 Grand Slam titles and deserves to be called one of the all-time greats, is smarter than that.

"I think if [Sampras] was still playing today, he would be a top-five player," Federer said.

For Sampras, who held the No. 1 ranking for a record 286 weeks and finished on top a record six consecutive years, fatherhood and golf were enough to keep him going for 2 1/2 years after he retired in 2002.

"I put on some weight, I saw a picture of myself and that was the pivotal moment," he said. "I was like, 'What happened to me?' My face looked full. I said, 'I don't want to be one of these athletes who puts on 30 pounds,' so I changed my eating habits, started played basketball twice a week."

And he began playing tennis again. Seriously.

"If I have a day when I don't play tennis, I have no focus, I'm a little restless, a little bored; my day is too open," Sampras said. "That's why I started playing, just to give me a little balance."

It also gave him a little incentive to play competitively again. Martin saw Sampras' victory over Federer and knows firsthand Sampras' level of play, having lost to him in three meetings in the Outback Championship Series, a top-level 30-or-older circuit promoted by their former contemporary, Jim Courier.

"It was plainly obvious how well he was playing. ... The type of play that would still be competitive with those who play the game at the highest level," said Martin, who played at Northwestern and reached the 1999 U.S. Open and '94 Australian Open finals.

"Pete has this weapon that honestly is probably in the top five of all serves right now. His serve is unchanged from when he was the best."

Again, the Federer match was an exhibition, and Sampras generously downplayed his victory, allowing that Federer had come off a long season, which culminated in a Masters victory. But Sampras also said that, while slower on court, he was hitting "better than ever" thanks to the new technology in rackets, and his famous serve indeed was clocked at 130 m.p.h.

"It was very difficult to read," Federer said.

And this is why it would be fun to watch the two battle, even in just one more Wimbledon for Sampras. Not because he hits his serve harder. Andy Roddick can blast away at 130-plus. So can Ivan Ljubicic and Ivo Karlovic.

Never heard of them? They're the 18th- and 22nd-ranked players in the world, both from Croatia, but only a tennis junkie could pick them out of the pack. The same could possibly be said of Roddick, for all he has done to challenge Federer. "As hard as Andy Roddick serves, it's not as accurate [as Sampras']," Martin said, "and I think Federer has a read on it, so Andy has to play loads more points."

Sampras also says Roddick is "at a level below Roger" and calls the contention that Federer's domination is hurting the men's game "very honest and very fair. ... It's hard to watch something when you know the result."

Added Sampras: "Roger is already a legend, which is great for the sport, but to transcend it from a media standpoint, he needs Roddick or someone to push him. It's basically one guy breaking all my records."

But to come back to the tour at 36, even for just one more Wimbledon, Sampras draws the line.

"I could do that," he said. "But people who really know the sport and know Wimbledon [know] it's a lot of work. Sure, if you told me I would train for two weeks and play Federer in the final of Wimbledon, I'd probably do the work. But there are a lot of great players I haven't seen play before, and there's not a whole lot to gain, probably a little more to lose."

Sampras does not deny that he still has a strong desire to compete.

"I'm not going do it for the limelight; I'm going to do it for the win," he said. "But I feel I've won enough, I have nothing to prove to anyone. In a romantic sense, it might be a big shot in the arm of the sport, and it would make news, but it's not worth it for me."

Too bad for us. And for tennis. But for Sampras, it is somehow comforting and fitting that a gentleman like Federer is poised to break his records.

"I'm at peace with what I did in the '90s," Sampras said. "Would I want my [records] to stand forever? I'd be lying if said no, but there's nothing I can do about it, and if someone has to beat it, I'd like to see Roger do it, someone who is what I was about, not horns and whistles and all that other stuff that some people in this country want."

Still, beating Federer reminded him how much he loved it.

"I believe people come back for different reasons, some for the limelight, some for the money," Sampras said. "I always played to win. Playing [Federer] definitely magnified that, and I'll always have that moment here and there when I wonder, but it goes away quickly. That day-to-day grind, I don't have it in me anymore. I had my time."