Hometown hope Mark Philippoussis faces an Australian Open acid test in a second round match against in-form Paradorn Srichapan.

The Thai rocketed up the rankings in 2002, winning more hard-court matches than any other player, and will provide a true challenge to Philippoussis on the comeback trail from his latest knee injury.

"He won in India, so he's playing some great tennis," Philippoussis said of Srichapan.

"He's got a big serve also, he likes to hit the ball hard, I've got to make him play.

"I'm going to come to the net, I'm going to be aggressive off the ground - that's the way I play and that's the way I'm going to approach the match.

"He's got a lot of confidence at the moment but I've just got to go out and play my own game."

Two other Australian men will also be up against seeds on day three with Wayne Arthurs to meet Frenchman Fabrice Santoro and Scott Draper to take on 2002 French Open winner Albert Costa.

Local player Peter Luczak will take on qualifier Renzo Furlan, who progressed to the second round when his seeded opponent Andrei Pavel was forced to withdraw through injury.

Andre Agassi will be back in centre-court action against Korean Hyung-Taik Lee, the American firming toward favouritism for the Open given the rusty form displayed by top-seed Lleyton Hewitt yesterday.

The women begin the day's program in Rod Laver Arena with the clash between number five seed Justine Henin-Hardenne and Russian Anna Kournikova.

The elimination of Jennifer Capriati in round one has made the Belgian a favourite to progress to the semi-finals but Kournikova showed some nice touch in her opening round win.

Venus Williams should have little problem with qualifier Ansley Cargill, but her sister Serena thought that yesterday and had to scrap for three long sets to overcome Emilie Loit.

Australian women in action today are Evie Dominikovic against number 22 seed Anne Kremer and wildcard Samantha Stosur versus qualifier Vanessa Webb while Queenslander Nicole Pratt will take on number 13 seed Silvia Farina-Elia.

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