One week before she vies for her fourth straight Australian Open title, the 19-year-old Hingis begins tuning up for the first Grand Slam event of the year against Olga Barabanschikova of Belarus in a second-round match Tuesday (Monday night in the United States). Hingis lost to second seed Lindsay Davenport, 6-4, 6-3, in last year's final.

Fresh off winning his hometown tournament for the second time in three years, Hewitt faces a tough opening-round opponent in Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean, who reached his first two career singles finals last season.

One day after the elimination of men's top seed Gustavo Kuerten on Monday, second seed Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador, fourth seed Cedric Pioline of France and fifth seed Karol Kucera of Slovakia hope to avoid a similar fate.

Lapentti, a semifinalist at last year's Australian Open, takes on Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco; Pioline battles last year's runner-up Alex Corretja of Spain, who is looking to snap a title drought of over a year; and Kucera plays Martin Damm of the Czech Republic.

Kuerten was eliminated by Spain's Francisco Clavet in three sets. Third seed and defending champion Todd Martin of the United States also struggled in his opening-round match, but pulled out a three-set win over French Open runner-up Andrei Medvedev.

For the women, fourth seed Barbara Schett of Australia meets American teenager Alexandra Stevenson in a second-round encounter, one week after both represented their respective countries in the Hopman Cup mixed team competition.

Two other seeds will play their opening-round matches. Seventh seed Amanda Coetzer of South Africa, who teamed with Wayne Ferreira to win the Hopman Cup, faces American Lisa Raymond. Eighth seed Anna Kournikova of Russia, coming off a quarterfinal showing last week in Gold Coast, Australia, goes against Sabine Applemans of Belgium.

Also, 1993 champion Jennifer Capriati, who went through a career resurgence last season which saw her vault to No. 23 in the WTA rankings, takes on Sandrine Testud of France. Capriati, also a runner-up in 1997, is coming off a victory over Hingis in the final of an exhibition event last week in Hong Kong.

Three of the four finalists at last week's tournaments will compete as Gold Coast runner-up Conchita Martinez meets Anne Kremer of Luxembourg, the winner of the ASB Bank Classic in Auckland, New Zealand. Silvija Talaja of Croatia, who defeated Martinez for her first career singles title, meets Russian qualifier Nadejda Petrova.

Sixth seed Amelie Mauresmo of France, last year's Australian Open runner-up, and 1998 champion Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario of Spain headlined Monday's winners on the women's side. Sanchez-Vicario knocked off fifth seed Julie Halard-Decugis of France, 6-4, 6-4.

First prize for the men is $46,000. The women's champion pockets $75,000.