He defeated Tarik Benhabiles, 6-1, 6-1, 6-3, and showed no effects of the muscle strain that forced him to default in a tuneup tournament last week.

She also lost early at two tuneup tournaments, and after going out in the first round at the Sydney International, she admitted she was struggling to cope with the pressure.

Williams didn't get to defend her title last year because of injury and comes into the season's first major with concern over her left ankle, which she twisted at a tuneup tournament in Brisbane earlier this month.

Lendl will have a tough semifinal opponent in Yannick Noah, the diving, leaping Frenchman who beat him in a tuneup tournament two weeks ago in Sydney.

He will base that decision on his performance in two tuneup tournaments on European clay before the Paris event, which is the next Grand Slam on the calendar.

The team will then travel to Europe to compete in a final tuneup tournament in Spain on Aug. 8 and 9.

Kim Clijsters, who looks most likely to threaten the Williamses this season, also has quickness and power, and she defeated Davenport last week in the final in a tuneup tournament in Sydney.

She came down with a classic case of burnout last week and withdraw from a tuneup tournament in Sydney.

One hope, he said, was for something "just before the U.S. Open, like a tuneup tournament" that would include some of the Open-bound.

Survivors of grueling tuneup tournaments around the country this summer, the players had each endured hundreds of matches in recent months, honing strategies and exercising the physical reflexes required to be the best.