MELBOURNE, JAN 25: Andre Agassi crashed back to earth at the Australian Open today, an unexpected loss to American journeyman Vincent Spadea robbing the tournament of its brightest remaining men's star.Spadea scored the biggest win of his career to beat 1995 open champion Agassi 6-1 7-5 6-7 6-3 in the fourth round.His win also left the open with just three seeded men and vying with the 1997 French Open for the record of fewest seeds to make the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam.Steffi Graf and Monica Seles in contrast shone brightly, the former champions easily winning to set up a quarter-final that rekindles one of the great rivalries of modern tennis.Defending champion and second seed Martina Hingis recovered from a mid-match black spot to advance with a hard-fought 6-3 6-7 6-1 win over 16th seed Amanda Coetzer of South Africa on a hot centre court at Melbourne Park.The world number 44 Spadea was in a giant-killing mood against fifth seed Agassi, who began the match slowly and sputtered to lifeonly briefly in the third set.Spadea came out blazing on both sides of the court, running Agassi around and forcing him into repeated errors.Agassi fought back in the third set, gaining an early break as he finally found his range. Spadea, whose nerves were cast-iron throughout the clash, broke back in the ninth game only to falter in the tie-break.Spadea then calmly served his way to victory, converting his third match point.Agassi's defeat leaves Karol Kucera of Slovakia, Russia's Yevgeny Kafelnikov and American Todd Martin as the only three men's seeds left in the tournament.Tenth seed Kafelnikov was due to play little-known Romanian Andre Pavel later today, with Martin up against Zimbabwe's Wayne Black.Seventh seed Kucera meets unheralded Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador in the quarter-finals tomorrow.Spadea had never before made it past the fourth round of a Grand Slam and will meet Tommy Haas in the quarter-finals after the unseeded German beat Fabrice Santoro of France 6-2 6-37-5.Graf and Seles - the winners of eight Australian Open titles between them - will meet in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.Tenth-seeded Graf, champion in Melbourne from 1988-90 and again in 1994, overpowered unseeded Austrian baseliner Barbara Schett 6-1 6-1 in a 47-minute fourth-round romp.Seles followed her old foe onto centre court and spent exactly the same amount of time there, working only slightly harder to oust 14th seed Sandrine Testud of France 6-0 6-3.Graf and Seles have not met in a Grand Slam since the German won the 1996 US. Open final in straight sets."You know you're going to have to raise your level of game but I try, try to be up for each match," Seles said of her rematch with Graf.
